Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli strikes kill 6 in occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say

By The Associated Press The Associated Press

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (Abir Sultan/Pool via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Abit Sultan]

Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes in the occupied West Bank killed six people, including the son of a prominent jailed militant.

Israel said all of those killed were militants who had been involved in attacks.

Israel has been carrying out large-scale raids in the territory over the past week that it says are aimed at dismantling militant groups and preventing attacks. The Palestinians fear a widening of the war in Gaza.

A strike overnight in the northern West Bank town of Tubas killed five people, including Mohammed Zubeidi, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday, without saying whether they were civilians or combatants.

His father, Zakaria Zubeidi, was a well-known militant commander during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and took part in a rare jail break in 2021 before being arrested and returned to prison days later.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures in front of a map during a press conference at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (Abir Sultan/Pool via AP)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Abir Sultan

The military said the younger Zubeidi had taken part in attacks against Israeli forces in the West Bank and that he was with a militant cell when he was targeted.

It said another fighter was killed in an airstrike in the built-up Al-Faraa refugee camp after hurling a firebomb at Israeli forces. The military released a video that it said showed the exchange. It said forces also uncovered roadside bombs in the camp, which dates back to the 1948 Mideast war surrounding Israel’s creation.

___

Here’s the latest:

Israeli strike on a tent camp kills 4 men and injures 2 children, Palestinian officials say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian health officials say an Israeli strike on a tent camp killed four men and wounded two children.

The strike early Thursday hit an encampment near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah. Hospital officials confirmed the toll and an Associated Press reporter saw the bodies.

The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike on a command and control center operated by Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group that was embedded in a humanitarian zone.

The nearly 11-month-long war has displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Israel has ordered mass evacuations into so-called humanitarian zones but occasionally carries out strikes there as well.

A woman who identified herself as Umm Mohammed Wadi said she was staying in a tent close to where the strike occurred.

“What did they do to be struck while sleeping?” she said. “No hospital is safe, nor any school or home.”

Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians.

The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 40,861 Palestinians have been killed and more than 94,000 wounded since the start of the war. It does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its toll.

The war began after Hamas launched a wide-scale attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire in November.