At least six Palestinians were reported killed in drone strikes and clashes with Israeli troops in the Tubas area of the northern West Bank early Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had carried out a drone strike in the Far’a camp just before 2 a.m., and later, at around 4 a.m., said it carried out three more strikes in the city of Tubas.
The IDF said the strikes targeted Palestinian gunmen who were shooting at troops during a raid in the Tubas area.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry said that five men were killed in the strikes in Tubas, and local media reported that a sixth Palestinian was shot dead in Far’a.
The ministry named the five Palestinians killed in the strike in Tubas as Ahmed Abu Dawas, 24, Mohammed Abu Juma, 30, Qusay Abd al-Razeq, 26, Mohammed Abu Zagha, 23, and Mohammed Zubeidi, 21.
Mohammed Zubeidi, according to Palestinian media, was the son of notorious terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, who in September 2021 escaped from Gilboa Prison along with five other high-security prisoners, leading Israeli security forces on a two-week manhunt before being caught.
The IDF has been carrying out a major operation in the northern West Bank since August 28. The operation — internally dubbed “Summer Camps” by the army — began with simultaneous raids on Jenin, Tulkarem and the Far’a camp near Tubas, with the goal of dismantling Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror networks in the three areas of the northern West Bank.
Read more: In longest West Bank raid in 20 years, IDF aims to set stage for future, smaller ops
So far, according to the IDF, more than 30 gunmen have been killed in the operation, among them the head of Hamas in Jenin and the head of Islamic Jihad in the Tulkarem area.
Violence in the West Bank has surged in the past year, following the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were massacred and 251 were taken hostage.
Since that date, Israeli troops have arrested some 5,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,000 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 670 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 29 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces have been killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.