3 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank

Ramallah, June 14 (IANS) Three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli raid in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian official said.

The Israeli side informed the Palestinian liaison (security coordination office) that the three young men were killed on Thursday inside a besieged house, Kamal Abu al-Rub, the Governor of Jenin, told Xinhua news agency.

The Israeli army besieged the house for several hours and exchanged gunfire with the three men, whose identities were not officially disclosed.

Video clips published by activists showed an Israeli bulldozer retrieving the body of one of the slain men from the house and throwing it to the ground, reports Xinhua news agency.

Local sources said the three men were leaders of the Islamic Jihad movement's Jenin Battalion and residents of the Jenin camp, who had been pursued by Israeli forces for months.

The sources added that Israeli forces stormed, searched, and combed the house, not allowing medical teams to approach until completing a 14-hour military operation in the city and the camp.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a press statement that Israeli forces attacked its crews when they attempted to transport an injured person to the hospital from a neighbourhood.

Israeli soldiers also fired shots at ambulance crews and journalists and prevented them from entering the camp, according to medical sources.

Electricity was completely cut off in the camp and some surrounding neighbourhoods due to the destruction of power lines by the Israeli raid, according to the Northern Electricity Company in the city.

The city's governor said the Israeli army also destroyed water and sewage networks in the camp after bulldozing its neighbourhoods, adding the army had declared the camp a military zone and prohibited entry and exit.

Also on Thursday, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee confirmed in a statement that for the second time in a week, the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security agency, and Border Guard forces carried out a campaign to "thwart terrorist activities" in Jenin.

Adraee said Israeli forces arrested a number of suspects and clashed with gunmen there, adding the engineering forces bulldozed roads in the area under which the "saboteurs" had planted explosive devices to target Israeli forces.

The forces also surrounded a building, where they exchanged fire with two "wanted persons" and eliminated them, the statement noted.

More than 500 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army across the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 2023, when the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out, according to official Palestinian statistics.