Agencies
West Bank
Five more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in a second day of raids in the occupied West Bank, with the UN calling for de-escalation.
Israel began what it said was a major counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank on Wednesday.The Palestinian health ministry said on Thursday that 12 people had been killed in IDF attacks so far.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called on Israel to immediately halt its operation, saying it was "fuelling an already explosive situation”.
He urged Israeli forces to "exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable”.
At least 20 Palestinians, including children, have so far been imprisoned by Israeli forces, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, who warned on Thursday that the number could rise as the raids continue.
In Tulkarem’s Nur Shams refugee camp, the Israeli military claimed on Thursday that it had killed five Palestinian fighters who were hiding in a mosque.
Among them was the commander of the Tulkarem Battalion, Mohamed Jaber, also known as Abu Shuja’a, it said. The military said Abu Shuja’a had directed the shooting and killing of an Israeli man in Qalqilya in June.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group confirmed the death of Abu Shuja’a and the other fighters, saying in a statement that they were killed "after a heroic battle against the soldiers of the [Israeli] occupation”.
Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the PIJ, later said that it targeted an Israeli infantry force in Tulkarem with an explosive device and a "hail of bullets” in response to the killing of Abu Shuja’a. The Jenin Battalion of the group also claimed a similar attack later on Thursday.
Wafa reported that Israeli troops burned down several homes and inflicted "extensive destruction” on civilian infrastructure in the Nur Shams camp.
Elsewhere, in Jenin, ambulances were stopped and checked by military jeeps parked around the government hospital as security forces continue their operation in the city’s refugee camp.