Israeli forces have carried out near-daily raids on the territory, killing more than 600 Palestinians since October.
Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Reporting from Tulkarem, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Nida Ibrahim said on Thursday that the raid was underway 12 hours later in the congested area, with the sounds of explosives and gunfire heard and drones flying overhead.
“People inside the refugee camp say that the Israeli army has set fire to some houses and that civil defense teams are not allowed to enter to put out the fires,” she said.
Thursday’s airstrike came as the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, said fighters from its Tulkarem battalion clashed with Israeli soldiers in the camp and detonated explosive devices targeting military vehicles.
“Our fighters continue to confront the occupation forces and we have managed to hit them directly,” the Qassam Brigades said.
The Israeli army deployed snipers on rooftops and sent bulldozers to destroy infrastructure.
The Quds News Network published a video of a fire following the army’s ground assault on the camp.
The Israeli military said its aircraft struck “several militants” in Tulkarem as ground forces searched for buried explosives.
Dozens of buildings were destroyed in the operation and at least one Israeli soldier was injured.
Tulkarem has been hit hard by Israeli raids, with 90 homes in the area destroyed by Israeli army operations since Israel began its war on Gaza in October, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Ibrahim said.
Israeli forces also carried out raids in towns and villages in the West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, and arrested two teenagers in the town of Deir Ballut and the town of Tubas.
A total of 25 Palestinians, including two women and a child, were arrested overnight and on Thursday morning in the West Bank, according to Wafa.
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said in a joint statement that the Israeli raids were marked by violence and intimidation.
Witnesses told the PPS that the detainees and their families had been threatened and their homes had been damaged.
In the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, Israeli troops clashed with Palestinians and used tear gas, live ammunition and sound bombs.
Attacks in the West Bank have increased since October 7, with Israeli forces killing more than 600 Palestinians in the occupied territory, including 144 children, while more than 10,000 Palestinians have been arrested.
In a landmark but non-binding ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared last month that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory was illegal, saying it must end “as expeditiously as possible.”
