West Bank: Israeli air strike kills senior Palestinian fighter in Jenin camp
The Israeli military killed a senior Palestinian fighter in an air strike on a building in the Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, on Friday night.
The Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, named the man as Islam Khamayseh. The Palestinian health ministry said that eight other Palestinians were wounded in the raid.
The Israeli military said a fighter jet and helicopter conducted the strike, a rarity in the West Bank, where Israeli air raids are usually carried out by drones.
A general strike and a day of mourning were announced in Jenin following the attack.
Israeli forces also conducted pre-dawn raids across the West Bank, detaining at least 20 Palestinians.
Many of those detained were workers from Gaza who were staying in the Palestinian village of Bartaa, west of Jenin, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
Israeli forces severely beat up the workers before detaining them, according to the news agency. It also said Israeli forces raided and searched a number of civilian homes in the village.
The Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, was also raided, with residents saying soldiers were seen mapping roads and filming several areas in the camp, according to Al Jazeera.
Israeli forces also raided the Qusra and Burqa villages, near Nablus, Qalqilya and Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.
The West Bank has seen a recent surge in violence and raids against Palestinians since the start of the war on Gaza, where more than 35,300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli attacks.
Last month, Israeli forces carried out a two-day assault on the Nur Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarm, killing 14 people and wounding 40 others.
For more than 50 hours, Israeli forces maintained a siege on the camp while they shot at residents, arrested scores of people and destroyed homes.
More than 500 Palestinians, including 124 children, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since 7 October, according to Palestinian officials.
More than 8,750 Palestinians have been detained over the same period.
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