Israeli air strikes kill nine Palestinians in occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm
Two Israeli air strikes killed nine Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm on Saturday, as the region braced for a possible response to Israel's assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that four people were killed in an aerial strike on Tulkarm, hours after another air strike killed a Hamas commander and four other Palestinians.
Wafa, citing local sources, said the missile struck a car near the village of Bal'a, killing four people. The agency added that Israeli forces blocked ambulances from reaching the scene of the attack.
Earlier, the Israeli army said it had killed five people, including a Hamas commander identified as a leader of one of its Tulkarm brigades.
The director of the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarem said in a statement that "five martyrs" had arrived at the facility after "an Israeli drone strike on a Palestinian vehicle close to the village of Zeita".
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The Israeli military said that police were "currently conducting a counterterrorism activity in the area of Tulkarem".
At least 603 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October.
Meanwhile, more than 8,000 Palestinians have been arrested, according to Palestinian prisoner groups.
Prisoners have been subjected to physical assault and other violations, including starvation, sleep deprivation, cutting off contact with their families and the withholding of water.
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