5 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on car in northern West Bank

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The Israeli army Thursday morning killed five Palestinians in an airstrike on a car near Tubas city in the northern occupied West Bank.

"Five martyrs and two injured, including one in serious condition, arrived at the Tubas Turkish Government Hospital as a result of an (Israeli) occupation strike on a car near Tubas," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Among the five killed is Muhammad Zubeidi, son of Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent leader in the Fatah Movement who is jailed in Israel since 2019.

In September 2021, Zakaria Zubeidi and five other Palestinian prisoners successfully escaped from their high-security Gilboa prison by digging a tunnel from their cell to outside the prison. Israeli forces, however, managed to recapture them all after almost a week of their prison break.

On Aug. 28, the Israeli army launched its largest military operation in the northern West Bank in two decades, causing massive destruction in the area and killing 38 Palestinians so far.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank as Israel pressed ahead with its brutal onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 690 people have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19 that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar​​​​​​​