Israeli forces kill seven Palestinians including two militants in West Bank raids

Israeli forces kill seven Palestinians including two militants in West Bank raids

Seven Palestinians, including two militant commanders and a woman, were killed on Tuesday during Israeli raids targeting gunmen in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

One Israeli raid took place in the city of Tulkarm, where fighting between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers erupted in the streets.

Two militants, one from the Islamist group Hamas and one a member of the rival Fatah faction, were killed, according to Palestinian sources, as well as a woman, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The identity of two other fatalities was not immediately clear.

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An Israeli military spokesperson said an airstrike had hit armed militants operating in the area and that exchanges of fire were ongoing.

The Palestinian health ministry said two Palestinians were killed in a separate raid near the city of Hebron. It did not give their identities.

Violence in the West Bank had been on the rise even before Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Since then, over 500 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed in clashes in the West Bank.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem - areas the Palestinians want for a state - in the 1967 Middle East war and has since built settlements in the West Bank and steadily expanded them.