UPDATE - Israeli forces kill 7 Palestinians in West Bank

REVISES HEADLINE, ADDS INFORMATION ON FATALATIES

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to the official news agency Wafa.

Wafa said three young men were killed by Israeli gunfire during a military raid in the town of Qabatiya near Jenin.

Israeli forces surrounded a house in the town and ordered those inside to surrender before opening fire on it, eyewitnesses said.

Dozens of families fled their homes in the area due to the army gunfire, they added.

Video clips shared by activists on social media showed three corpses on the rooftop of a house in Qabatiya after Israeli forces shot dead the three men.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said medics were prevented by Israeli forces from reaching the besieged house.

Later in the evening, it said its teams successfully recovered two bodies from a house that had been besieged in the town.

On Thursday evening, two Palestinians were killed and a young man and a child were wounded in separate incidents.

The first occurred when Israeli soldiers opened fire, and the second involved a drone strike in the same town, according to Wafa.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank amid a deadly Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which has killed nearly 41,300 people, mostly women and children, since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

At least 710 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,700 others injured by Israeli forces in the West Bank since Oct. 7, according to the Health Ministry.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar