Israel said it killed two senior Hamas militants in an airstrike on their car in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, claiming they were involved in the killing of an Israeli.
A joint statement from the Israel Security Agency and the Israel Defense Forces identified the militants as Ahmed Abu Ara and Rafet Dawasi, both from the West Bank’s northern district around Jenin.
In a statement, Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades military wing said it was mourning the deaths of two fighters in an Israeli airstrike on their vehicle in Jenin.
The Israeli statement said the two militants were involved in planning an attack on Sunday in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley where an Israeli man, Yonatan Deutsch, was killed.
Israeli authorities said at the time that Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a main road in the occupied West Bank, killing one and wounding another.
Later that day, the al-Qassam Brigades said its West Bank-based fighters killed an Israeli soldier at point-blank range near the settlement of Mehola in the Jordan Valley and “returned to their bases safely.”
Hamas said the operation came in retaliation for Israel’s strike on a school where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in Gaza City. The civil defense service said the strike killed at least 90 people.
Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas broke out after the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages in Israel. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
In a move condemned by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, Israeli settlers killed at least one Palestinian on Thursday in an attack on a village near the West Bank city of Qalqilya.
The latest West Bank violence comes as a new round of talks in Doha aimed at ending 10 months of fighting in Gaza are due to resume next week.
