Israel launches more deadly strikes in illegally occupied West Bank
Zeita, West Bank - Israeli drone strikes killed nine people in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian press agency Wafa reported.
According to Wafa, an Israeli military drone targeted a vehicle "with two missiles" which caught fire, killing five men.
The director of the Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem said in a statement that "five martyrs" had arrived at the facility after "an Israeli drone strike on a Palestinian vehicle close to the village of Zeita in Tulkarem."
Israel's military claimed its air force "struck five terrorists in a vehicle... who were on their way way to carry out" an attack.
"The Israeli police are currently conducting a counterterrorism activity in the area of Tulkarem," the military said in a statement.
At the scene of the strike, a witness told AFP, "I live less than 50 meters (yards) from here. We came (after) the sound of an explosion and saw a vehicle on fire" on the road towards Zeita, to the north of Tulkarem.
"Next to it, we saw a body lying on the road. Inside the vehicle, there were three charred bodies, from what we were able to see, completely burnt," added Nasser, who declined to have his last name published.
The Israeli military quickly sealed off the area, Wafa reported.
Israeli intensifies attacks on West Bank amid illegal occupation
In a second air strike, hours later in the Tulkarem area, Wafa reported that four Palestinians were killed.
The military confirmed the aerial strike, saying "an additional terrorist cell was eliminated" as part of the ongoing counterterrorism activity there.
During the operation there was an encounter between troops and militants, after which Israeli soldiers called in an air strike, killing the four, the military said.
Alongside Israel's over-300-day all-out assault on the Gaza Strip, military and settler colonial violence has intensified in the West Bank.
At least 603 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.
At least 17 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed by Palestinian attacks in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.
Excluding East Jerusalem, some 490,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank alongside some three million Palestinians, with the Israeli government moving to expand settlements.
Last month, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and needs to end "as rapidly as possible."
Cover photo: Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP