The drone attack in Tammun follows a raid on a house in the town of Tubas that killed one person.
The Israeli army killed a Palestinian in a dawn raid on the occupied West Bank town of Tubas before launching an airstrike on the nearby town of Tammun that killed four people.
The army entered Tubas at dawn on Wednesday and attacked the house of Fayez Fawaz Abu Amer, shooting and killing the man, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it had launched an “anti-terrorist operation” during which it “eliminated one terrorist” and “hit others in an exchange of fire.”
She said her troops had “arrested wanted suspects and located and confiscated weapons.”
According to Tel Aviv Tribune’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Tubas, the clashes then spread to Tammun, southeast of Tubas, where a drone struck a group of men, killing four of them.
“The governor of Tubas said that Israeli forces took the bodies with them, which is part of Israel’s policy of retaining the bodies of Palestinians it deems responsible for attacks,” Ibrahim said.
Footage shared on a Palestinian social media account, verified by Tel Aviv Tribune’s fact-checking agency Sanad, appears to show Israeli soldiers dragging one of the bodies along the road before throwing it into the back of a military vehicle.
The Israeli military said it “carried out airstrikes against several armed terrorists” in the city.
Clashes also took place on the ground, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Ibrahim said, with gunfire and loud explosions heard in the area. The al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, said in a statement that it was fighting Israeli forces.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was unable to reach the scene of the attack because the army had blocked roads.
Ibrahim said the raids follow a recent shooting that killed one person near the illegal Israeli settlement of Mahola in the Jordan Valley.
“Israeli forces carried out raids on several Palestinian villages after the shooting,” Ibrahim said.
Drone attacks in the occupied West Bank have become increasingly frequent in recent months. Israeli forces, supported by drone strikes, killed 11 Palestinians in clashes around Jenin earlier this month. Drones have also been used to target Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp, near the city of Tulkarem.