At least four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank’s Nablus

Israeli forces open fire at a vehicle in Nablus City as raids across occupied West Bank continue.

Israeli forces have killed at least four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

A fifth Palestinian was wounded in the attack on Wednesday, which according to local media reports, was carried out by Israeli Special Forces in the centre of Nablus City.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa said that an undercover Israeli unit “sneaked their way into the city and opened gunfire on a vehicle” that those killed were travelling in.

The wounded person was taken to a nearby hospital and is being treated for shrapnel wounds in the head and chest, Wafa said, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Palestinian factions have called for a general strike on Thursday in Nablus in response to the attack.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Israeli Army Radio, citing the Israeli military, the Israeli Police and the domestic security agency, Shin Bet, reported that five people were killed in the incident.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the four slain men as: Abdulhamil Nasser, 43; Selim Abu Saadah, 41; Naim Abdulhadi, 32; Issam Salaj, 31.

The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the “cowardly” attack, saying the “assassination of a group of resistance fighters” in Nablus is a heinous crime.

“The killings and strikes will not deter our people from … our resistance,” Hamas said in a statement. These attacks “will only grow our determination and resolve”, it added.

Israel has conducted near-daily violent raids across the occupied West Bank since June 2021 in an attempt to crack down on armed groups.

The raids have increased further in scale and intensity since Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Since October 7, 2023, at least 747 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian health officials, and more than 6,200 others have been wounded.

Between October 7 last year and the end of September, 695 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to a tally from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

A majority of people were killed by the Israeli military, while a dozen were killed by Israeli settlers, according to the OCHA.

Last month, a UN human rights expert warned that Israel had stepped up its military assault on the northern West Bank, leading to a “dangerous escalation”.

The attacks in the West Bank have been taking place in tandem with Israel’s continuing deadly assault on Gaza, which has so far killed more than 42,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel has also launched aerial and ground attacks in Lebanon as a year of cross-border fire between Israeli forces and the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalated last month.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by Israel’s continued bombardment of the country, while more than 2,000 have been killed since last October, according to Lebanese health authorities.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies