Israeli forces killed at least four Palestinians in Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
A fifth Palestinian was injured in Wednesday’s attack, which local media said was carried out by Israeli special forces in the center of the city of Nablus.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency said an undercover Israeli unit “sneaked into the town and opened fire on a vehicle” in which those killed were traveling.
The injured person was taken to a nearby hospital and is being treated for shrapnel wounds to the head and chest, Wafa said, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Palestinian factions called for a general strike in Nablus on Thursday in response to the attack.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Israeli Army Radio, citing the Israeli army, Israeli police and internal security agency Shin Bet, reported that five people were killed in the incident.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the four men killed as: Abdulhamil Nasser, 43; Selim Abou Saadah, 41 years old; Naïm Abdulhadi, 32 years old; Issam Salaj, 31 years old.
The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the “cowardly” attack, saying that “the assassination of a group of resistance fighters” in Nablus is a heinous crime.
“Killings and strikes will not deter our people from… our resistance,” Hamas said in a statement. These attacks “will only increase our determination and determination,” he adds.
Israel has been carrying out almost daily violent raids in the occupied West Bank since June 2021 in an attempt to suppress armed groups.
The raids have further increased in scale and intensity since Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
Since October 7, 2023, at least 747 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian health authorities, and more than 6,200 others have been injured.
Between October 7 last year and the end of September, 695 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, according to a tally by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The majority of people were killed by the Israeli army, while a dozen were killed by Israeli settlers, according to OCHA.
Last month, a UN human rights expert warned that Israel had intensified its military attack on the northern West Bank, leading to a “dangerous escalation”.
The attacks in the West Bank took place alongside Israel’s ongoing deadly assault on Gaza, which has so far killed more than 42,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel has also launched air and ground attacks in Lebanon as cross-border shooting between Israeli forces and the Lebanese group Hezbollah intensified last month.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by Israel’s continued bombardment of the country, while more than 2,000 people have been killed since last October, according to Lebanese health authorities.
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