Israeli forces clash with Hamas in occupied West Bank
World
Israeli forces clash with Hamas in occupied West Bank
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel said its forces had hit Palestinian militants in Tamoun in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday while Hamas said its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli forces in nearby Tubas city after one was killed in an Israeli raid.
Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas broke out last October, with more Israeli raids, Jewish settler violence and Palestinian street attacks. Hamas has claimed more attacks there in recent days.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that one man was killed in the Israeli raid in Tubas, while four others were killed in an Israeli drone strike in Tamoun, a few kilometres further south.
It did not give their identities, but the Al-Qassam Brigades - the armed wing of the militant Palestinian group Hamas - later said one of its fighters, Fayyaz Fawaz Daraghmeh, was killed in the Tubas raid.
"Our fighters have been engaged for hours in fierce clashes with the invading occupation forces in Tubas," it said.
The Israeli military said: "As part of counterterrorism activity ... an aircraft struck a number of armed terrorists in Tamoun." It did not give a casualty figure.
The Palestinian Education Ministry named one of those killed in Tamoun as 17-year-old Mohammad Bani Odeh.
Reuters journalists at the scene of the Tubas raid saw a badly damaged house, with shattered glass and blood stains on the ground.
