Fresh violence seized the West Bank on Sunday, leaving eight Palestinians and an Israeli policewoman dead in two clashes.
Israeli officials said it began when a buried bomb in Jenin blew up a military vehicle, killing the officer and wounding three others. The Jenin Battalion of Islamic Jihad took credit for the explosion.
Then, as Israeli soldiers fought with Palestinians on the ground in Jenin, an airstrike was called in. A military helicopter fired on the Palestinians, killing seven—four of them brothers, according to Palestinian authorities.
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“The air strike happened at the entrance of Jenin in an area called Martyr’s Triangle,” a witness, Ahmed Suleiman, told Reuters. “You can see the effects of the missile. Blood and body parts scattered everywhere.”
Mujahhid Nazal, a doctor at nearby clinic, told the Associated Press: “It was a really dire situation, seven young men were lying on the ground.”
Hours later, a Palestinian man from East Jerusalem who was driving a car with Israeli license plates was shot and killed in the West Bank in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. A woman was also wounded in that attack.
Tensions in the occupied West Bank have been flaring since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel sparked the monthslong military assault on Gaza. The Israeli military has stepped up raids and arrests, saying that Jenin had become a hiding spot for Palestinian militants, and Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian residents.
