Israeli Attacks In West Bank Kill 3 People

Israeli Army/ILLUSTRATION PHOTO via Wikimedia Commons/IDF

JAKARTA - A drone attack during Israeli military operations in the volatile city of Tulkarem in the West Bank killed three Palestinians.

The Palestinian health ministry said an Israeli attack took place in the Tulkarem refugee camp, a densely populated city that houses refugee families fleeing during the 1948 Middle East war.

Israel is targeting armed militants, the Israeli military said in a statement.

Reported by Reuters on Thursday, August 22, Israeli forces faced Palestinian militants and dug up a road to find a homemade explosive device buried under the asphalt, while residents said gunshots and explosions were heard all morning.

There has been no immediate claim from the Palestinian armed factions that the people killed in the drone strike were members.

Clashes in the occupied West Bank have risen sharply since the start of the Gaza war last year when Israeli forces stepped up operations against armed militant groups including Hamas and Iran-backed Islamic Jihad.

Thousands of Palestinians were arrested and 637 people killed, most of them armed militants, but many also threw stones at youths or civilians who were not involved.

At the same time, more than a dozen Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On Thursday, Palestinian media reported a Palestinian man killed last week in Tel Aviv, allegedly planning to carry out a bomb attack in the city has been identified by Israel's security authorities as a resident of Nablus, another city that is also a point of conflict in the West Bank.