Israeli drone strike kills Palestinian gunmen amid more West Bank raids

By Ali Sawafta

TUBAS, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed six Palestinian militants in the town of Tubas and in a nearby refugee camp in the occupied West Bank early on Thursday, the military said, as a major operation in the territory stretched into a second week.

The incidents took place during raids in different areas of the West Bank that have involved hundreds of soldiers, police and intelligence officers backed by helicopters, drones and armoured vehicles – the biggest Israeli military action in the territory in months.

In Tubas, a city in the north of the Jordan Valley where 10 people have been killed over the past week, hundreds of mourners joined the funeral procession, including dozens of armed men firing into the air.

The Israeli military said three drone strikes hit a militant cell that posed a threat to soldiers in Tubas, killing a number of individuals including Mohammad Zakaria Zubeidi, whom it described as a “significant terrorist” in the Jenin area.

Palestinian health officials said the strikes killed five people and wounded three. The five were claimed as members by the armed wing of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad.

A heavily damaged car parked in a garage area was surrounded by blood stains where the men were killed in the strike.

A sixth Palestinian, identified as a 16 year-old by Palestinian health officials, was also killed in the area of Far’a, near Tubas, during an exchange of fire with Israeli security forces.

The military said he was armed with an explosive device but there was no claim from any of the militant groups that he was a member.

In the same operation around Far’a, the military said a drone strike hit a number of fighters who threw explosives and opened fire on security forces. However there were no reports of deaths in the incident from Palestinian authorities.

Israeli forces remained in Tulkarm on Thursday and in the flashpoint city of Jenin, historically one of the main centres of armed Palestinian groups in the West Bank.

The area was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, and Palestinians envisage it as part of an eventual state also including Gaza and East Jerusalem.

The nine-day operation has left a trail of burned and damaged houses in Jenin and more than 20 km of roadway dug up by armoured tractors in what the Israeli military says is a tactic needed to neutralize buried roadside bombs.

Water and electricity services have also been disrupted, while thousands of people have been ordered from their homes in parts of the city. Health authorities have also said ambulances have faced problems getting through Israeli cordons around the city’s main hospital.

At least 39 Palestinians have been killed across the West Bank during the operation, according to Palestinian health authorities. Most of those have been armed fighters but some uninvolved civilians have also been killed, including a 16-year-old girl. One Israeli soldier was also killed.

The West Bank has seen heightened unrest since the outbreak of the war between Israeli forces and Hamas in the Gaza Strip last October, with Israeli military actions, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, and violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinian communities.

(Writing by James Mackenzie, Editing by Angus MacSwan)