UPDATE – Palestinian death toll from Israeli attack in northern West Bank rises to 17

UPDATES WITH DETAILS

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – At least 17 Palestinians were killed by Israeli army fire amid an ongoing military operation in the northern West Bank since Wednesday, the Red Crescent Society said.

The society said in a statement that a Palestinian man lost his life in eastern Jenin early Thursday.

It came shortly after five Palestinians were killed by Israeli army fire inside a mosque in Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern city of Tulkarem.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army launched a major military operation in the northern West Bank, the largest in two decades.

At least 45 Palestinians were rounded up by the Israeli army in the northern West Bank since the start of the military operation in the area, including 25 on Thursday, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank amid a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 670 Palestinians have since been killed, nearly 5,400 others injured and over 10,300 arrested in the occupied territory, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice 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