The Israeli military raided Palestinian villages in the northern part of the West Bank early Tuesday, setting off clashes with militants. Four Palestinians were killed, according to Palestinian health authorities.
It was not clear whether the dead included militants or civilians and Palestinian authorities do not differentiate in their death tolls. But the Israeli military said it had engaged in firefights during the raids that killed militants in the village of Tamoun and that its aircraft had carried out strikes there and near the city of Jenin.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed militant group, said fighters in villages south of Jenin were firing bullets at Israeli forces and detonating explosive devices.
The raids in the Israeli-occupied West Bank suggested that Israel’s military was continuing to target armed fighters in the northern West Bank even as it conducts major operations in Gaza and Lebanon and braces for the possibility of a wider conflict with Iran.
Israel has been ramping up a crackdown in the occupied territory that began before the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, with authorities increasingly concerned about bolder and more sophisticated attacks by Palestinians. The raids have left a swath of destruction in the territory, churning up roads and leaving many civilians scared to leave their homes in what Israel’s military says is a search for explosive devices.
Sadeq Nazzal, 60, an owner of a nursery in Qabatiya, not far from Jenin, said he heard a powerful explosion on Tuesday morning and described a chaotic scene, with military vehicles moving along the main north-south highway and sounds of gunfire in the distance.
“We’ve become used to this situation,” he said. “But every time it happens, it upends our lives. Workplaces and schools shut down.”
During a funeral procession held in Tamoun, one of the Palestinians killed on Tuesday had been wrapped in an Islamic Jihad flag. Palestinian militant groups often drape their fallen members in flags bearing their emblems, but they will occasionally claim unaffiliated people as being among their ranks.
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