5 Palestinian Militants Killed By Israeli Troops While Hiding In West Bank Mosque

Israeli Army/ILLUSTRATION PHOTO via Wikimedia Commons/IDF

JAKARTA - The Israeli military says its forces killed five Palestinian fighters hiding inside a mosque in the city of Tulkarem, West Bank.

The operation, which a Reuters witness said was not over yet, began on Wednesday, August 28 with hundreds of Israeli soldiers backed by helicopters, unmanned aircraft, and armored personnel carriers storming the hotspot cities of Tulkarem, Jenin, and areas in the Jordan Valley.

There is also a total network outage in Jawwal, one of the two major telecommunications companies in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinian health authorities said 12 Palestinians were killed in Wednesday's operations.

In Jenin on Thursday, August 29, the bulldozer moved along empty roads as the sound of the aircraft traversing through the sky.

Meanwhile Israeli forces remain stationed in front of the city's main hospitals, inspecting ambulances.

The military on Wednesday blocked access to hospitals with mounds of ground and inspected incoming ambulances to prevent fighters from seeking shelter there.

Armed wings of the Hamas factions, Islamic Jihad and Fatah said in a separate statement that their gunmen detonated a bomb against Israeli military vehicles in Jenin, Tulkarm and Far'a, the city of Lembah Jordan.

Israel said one of the five fighters killed in the Tulkarm mosque was Muhhamad Jabard, known as "Abu Shujaa", head of the network of fighters at the Nur Shams refugee camp next to the city.