At least 5 killed in Israeli drone strike on car in occupied West Bank

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

At least 5 Palestinian men were killed and two wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a car in the city of Tubas, medic says.

An Israeli air attack on a car in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas has killed at least five Palestinian people and left others wounded, local media and medical workers report.

Israel said early on Thursday morning that military aircraft took part in “three different attacks” on Palestinian fighters who “posed a threat” to their forces in the Tubas region.

Palestinian medics reported that five people were killed in an Israeli air strike targeting a car and two people were injured, one of whom was critical, according to the Palestinian state news agency, Wafa.

The Reuters news agency later reported that the number of those killed in the drone attack had risen to at least six.

According to Wafa, the attack was carried out by an armed drone, and Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance crews brought the bodies of the five deceased men and two wounded people to the Tubas Turkish Government Hospital.

The killing of the five comes as a large force of Israeli troops stormed the Far’a refugee camp in the Tubas governorate, where explosions were heard, witnesses told the AFP news agency.

Israel began a massive military offensive across the occupied West Bank last week that has now killed at least 38 Palestinians and wounded 130 with the vast majority of casualties in Jenin.

The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli forces are using “lethal war-like tactics” in the West Bank and that Palestinian children have been among those killed.

The military raids, mostly concentrated on the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps, constitute Israel’s largest assault on the occupied territory since the second Intifada in the early 2000s.

The raids have seen significant violence and numerous arrests, while roads and other infrastructure have been destroyed by Israeli military bulldozers, the OCHA also said, adding that it had mobilised organisations from the UN and beyond to assess the damage and humanitarian needs on the ground.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies