Seven dead in Israeli raids on refugee camps in West Bank

Seven Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank yesterday, official Palestinian media said.

Israel carried out overnight raids on two refugee camps in the West Bank city of Nablus, and a drone strike that killed four in a vehicle in Tulkarm.

Israeli troops prevented ambulances from reaching the site of the Tulkarm camp strike, the Palestine Red Crescent reported.

Eyad Jarrar, secretary general of the Fatah party in Tulkarm, said the four were not militants, and accused Israel of collective punishment to “pressure people in the camps to abandon the resistance”.

“They are destroying roads, the sewerage system, shops, public areas in the camp and the city,” he added.

Mr Jarrar said the raids are a sign that Israel wants “escalation” in the West Bank.

Three people were also killed in a drone strike on a vehicle near the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported.

Ahmad Jibril, head of the ambulance department at the Palestine Red Crescent, told The

National that Israeli troops had “towed away” the vehicle with bodies inside.

The Red Crescent received one body, which was impossible to identify after the drone strike, Mr Jibril said.

“The Israelis seem to have forgotten about that body, and had left it behind,” he said.

The Israeli military said it had “eliminated” one person, identified as the leader of Al Aqsa Brigades militant group in Nablus, accused by Israel of several attacks.

Israeli troops detained at least 84 people in the West Bank yesterday, Wafa reported, including at least 40 workers from Gaza, a 16-year-old in Ramallah, and an injured man in Jericho.

On Tuesday, a Palestine Red Crescent worker was injured by “shrapnel from live bullets” in Askar camp, east of Nablus, as Israeli troops detained more Palestinians, Wafa reported.

Israel has intensified its operations in the West Bank in recent months, as the war in Gaza rages on.