Six killed in Israeli strike on refugee camp in occupied West Bank

At least six Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike during a raid on a refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, while Israeli forces expanded their operations across the territory.

The overnight drone strike hit a group of Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp next to the town of Tulkarem, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and health officials said on Wednesday.

Six bodies were taken to a local hospital, along with a number of people who were injured in the attack, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The incursion was the “second-biggest raid” on the refugee camp in 24 hours, said Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.

Ongoing clashes were reported in Tulkarem and Nur Shams until about 7am (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday, he said.

“We were told there were snipers on the roof, that the Israelis had moved into Nur Shams to try and arrest people that they say were ‘wanted’.”

The raids in the refugee camp for a second night in a row have left people increasingly worried about what might happen later in the evening, according to our correspondent.

After the strike in Nur Shams, PRCS said the Israeli military blocked ambulances from transporting the dead and wounded.“They had tried to get to those who had been injured, and of course every minute counts in a situation like that. But they were blocked for 65 minutes by Israeli military vehicles,” Fisher said.

The Israeli military also conducted raids in the cities of Bethlehem, Jenin, Hebron and Tubas, with reports of many arrests. Three people were injured in the Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Violence across the occupied West Bank has flared since Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip began on October 7.

In that time, more than 300 people have been killed in raids on the occupied West Bank and more than 5,000 Palestinians have been arrested.

In the Gaza Strip, at least 20,915 people have been killed and 54,918 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7. The revised death toll from Hamas’s attack on Israel stands at 1,139.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his forces will not lower the intensity of fighting and are instead “deepening operations in southern Gaza”, while Herzi Halevi, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, said the war on Gaza will continue for “many months”.