Israel’s military said Thursday it killed five militants in the occupied West Bank as it carried out a second consecutive day of counterterrorism operations.
Israeli forces killed the militants inside a mosque where they were hiding in the city of Tulkarem, the military said.
The Israel Defense Forces identified one of the militants as Mohammed Jaber, a commander from the group Islamic Jihad, and said he had been involved in numerous attacks on Israelis.
Israeli forces killed at least nine people Wednesday during raids and airstrikes in and around the city of Jenin. The Hamas militant group said 10 of its fighters were killed.
Throughout Israel’s war against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, Israeli forces have repeatedly conducted raids in the West Bank that the military says are aimed at disrupting potential attacks.
Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 640 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began last October, while Palestinian attacks have killed at least 19 Israelis.
Hamas has urged Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up, calling the raids part of a larger plan to expand the war in Gaza and blaming the escalation on U.S. support for Israel.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the raids as a “serious escalation” and called on the United States to intervene.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department released a statement Wednesday condemning what it characterized as “extremist [Jewish] settler violence in the West Bank.”
It “causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security, and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” the statement said. “It is critical that the government of Israel hold accountable any individuals and entities responsible for violence against civilians in the West Bank.”
The U.S. announced sanctions Wednesday on the Israeli nongovernmental organization Hashomer Yosh, which, according to State Department officials, thwarted the return of Palestinian residents to their West Bank settlement earlier this year.
In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, “Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel. The issue is in a pointed discussion with the U.S.”
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for a future state.
Israeli citizens have built scores of settlements across the West Bank, now home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers. They have Israeli citizenship, while the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited control over population centers.
VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
