TULKAREM, Palestinian Territories: Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinian “terrorists” holed up in a building during a 12-hour siege in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said on Saturday.
Media reported a heavy military deployment in Deir al-Ghusun village near the northern town of Tulkarem.
According to media reports, troops deployed a bulldozer to flatten a building and carried at least one body out of the rubble.
The army and the Shin Bet security service in a joint statement said that the Israeli forces engaged in an extensive 12-hour counterterrorism operation in the Tulkarem area.
They said troops had come under fire as they tried to enter the village to “neutralise a terrorist cell” and had “retaliated” with “live ammunition, shoulder-fired missiles and other weaponry”.
An army drone hit the building before sappers moved in to “dismantle” it.
The joint statement added that the confrontation ended with the elimination of five terrorists, and the seizure of military gear and weapon components.
It added that a member of a counterterrorism unit of Israel’s border police was injured in this operation.
The West Bank has seen an increase in violence since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7. According to the media reports, at least 496 Palestinians have been killed in the area by Israeli forces and settlers.
According to the Ministry of Health of the Hamas-controlled region, at least 34,654 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children, were killed in the Israeli regime’s retaliatory attacks against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
