By Israeli strikes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have resulted in multiple casualties, according to Palestinian health officials, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues to intensify.
In the West Bank, Palestinian health officials reported that Israeli strikes killed six people, including the son of a prominent jailed militant. The Israeli military stated that all those killed were militants involved in attacks.
A strike overnight in the northern West Bank town of Tubas killed five people, including Mohammed Zubeidi, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday. Zubeidi is the son of Zakaria Zubeidi, a well-known militant commander from the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s who took part in a rare jail break in 2021 before being recaptured.
The Israeli military claimed that the younger Zubeidi had participated in attacks against Israeli forces in the West Bank and was with a militant cell when targeted. In another incident, the military reported killing a fighter in an airstrike in the Al-Faraa refugee camp after he allegedly hurled a firebomb at Israeli forces.
Israel has been conducting large-scale raids in the West Bank over the past week, stating that these operations aim to dismantle militant groups and prevent attacks. However, Palestinians fear these actions may lead to a widening of the war in Gaza.
Simultaneously, in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials reported that an Israeli strike on a tent camp near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed four men and wounded two children early Thursday. An Associated Press reporter confirmed seeing the bodies at the hospital.
The Israeli military stated it had carried out a precise strike on a command and control center operated by Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group, which was allegedly embedded in a humanitarian zone.
A woman identified as Umm Mohammed Wadi, who was staying in a tent close to where the strike occurred, questioned the attack, saying, “What did they do to be struck while sleeping? No hospital is safe, nor any school or home.”
The ongoing conflict has displaced approximately 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. While Israel has ordered mass evacuations into designated humanitarian zones, it occasionally carries out strikes in these areas as well.
Israel maintains that it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. However, the Gaza Health Ministry reports that at least 40,861 Palestinians have been killed and more than 94,000 wounded since the start of the war. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its toll.
The war began after Hamas launched a wide-scale attack into Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Approximately 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a ceasefire in November.
