Israeli forces kill five Palestinians in West Bank clashes

Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, including two who were shot dead when their car broke through a checkpoint, sources on both sides said.

Troops chased a car that had run a checkpoint near the city of Hebron and “fired toward the terrorists and neutralised them”, the Israeli army said in a statement.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah confirmed the men were killed, while the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it had received their bodies.

Late on Sunday, the health ministry said two teenagers had been killed by Israeli troops near Ramallah in another incident.

The army said two assailants had thrown an explosive at soldiers at a military base in the area.

“The soldiers neutralised the assailants. No IDF (army) injuries were reported,” the army said in a statement.

In a third incident further north, the Palestinian health ministry said another young man had been shot dead by Israeli forces in a refugee camp near the city of Jericho.

Medical sources in Jericho told an AFP correspondent that a 16-year-old was killed during an army raid on the camp to arrest a wanted man.

No clashes were reported and the Israeli army has not yet commented on the incident.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since October 7, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel that sparked a full-scale conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli army raids and attacks by settlers have killed at least 343 people in the West Bank since then, according to an AFP tally based on sources on both sides.

More than 520 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank last year, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Over the same period, Palestinian militants carried out attacks in Israel and the West Bank that killed at least 41 people, according to the Shin Bet security agency.

Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.