12 Palestinians Killed In Israel Strikes As West Bank Violence Escalates

Israeli forces backed by drone strikes killed at least 12 people in the occupied West Bank, medics said on Tuesday, after raids around two flashpoint cities in the north led to gunbattles with Palestinian operatives.

The Israeli military said it conducted two separate air strikes in the volatile city of Jenin, hitting armed cells, but gave no details.

The Palestinian health ministry said five people were killed in the strikes against two vehicles in Jenin, one of the most turbulent centres of armed activity in the West Bank. Another person was critically wounded.

The strikes came during an Israeli military operation in Jenin in which footage shared on social media showed a column of armoured personnel carriers entering the city and armoured bulldozers digging up roads.

In the wake of that raid, Israeli forces surrounded a house in the village of Kafr Qud, close to Jenin. Local Palestinian medical workers said three people were killed in the ensuing shootout, with another two wounded.

There were no details on the identity of the dead and it was not immediately clear whether they were members of any of the armed factions.

With Israel bracing for an expected Iranian response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, the West Bank violence underscored the multi-front security challenge facing Israeli forces, 10 months after the start of the war with Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

Overnight, the Palestinian health ministry said at least four Palestinians were killed and seven others injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank town of Aqaba, close to the city of Tubas. Two of the injured were in critical condition.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the clashes occurred after Israeli forces surrounded a house in Aqaba and clashed with a group of young men.

Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the Gaza war, many of them armed fighters but many also stone-throwing youths or uninvolved civilians.

At the same time, at least 13 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks. On Tuesday a female border guard was wounded in a stabbing by a Palestinian man using a screwdriver during a bus inspection at a checkpoint on Jerusalem's outskirts.

The attacker was shot dead, the police said.

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