UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS DETAILS; CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK
By Anadolu staff
ANKARA (AA) - At least seven Palestinians were killed and two others injured on Friday during Israeli forces’ storming of the city of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that the body of a Palestinian was recovered from under the rubble in a house that was targeted by the Israeli army in Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, bringing the number of fatalities to seven.
Earlier, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that “six martyrs and two seriously injured Palestinians arrived at the Jenin Governmental Hospital as a result of the Israeli occupation’s aggression against the city.”
Eyewitnesses reported to Anadolu that the deaths were caused by an Israeli bombing targeting the Al-Awda Square in Jenin, coinciding with the Israeli army’s storming of the city.
Witnesses indicated that the Israeli army stormed the city from several entrances, surrounded a house, and bombed it amid the outbreak of confrontations and armed clashes with Palestinians.
At dawn on Friday, the Israeli army carried out raids that targeted the cities of Qalqilya, Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem amid confrontations with dozens of Palestinians, during which a number of Palestinians were arrested.
Over the past few years, the Israeli military has carried out regular raids in the West Bank, which escalated with the beginning of the war on Gaza last Oct. 7. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.
At least 568 Palestinians, including 136 children, have since been killed and more than 5,350 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel stands accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
* Writing by Ikram Kouachi