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Israeli troops eliminate 5 Palestinian fighters inside West Bank mosque

The Israeli military said on Thursday its soldiers killed 5 Palestinian militants who were hiding inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, in one of its largest assaults in the Israelioccupied territory for months.

The operation, which a Reuters witness said has yet to conclude, began in the early hours of Wednesday with numerous Israeli soldiers backed by helicopters, drones and armoured workers carriers raiding the flashpoint cities of Tulkarm, Jenin and areas in the Jordan Valley.

There was also a complete network outage at Jawwal, among the two primary telecoms business in the Palestinian areas of Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Reuters witness.

Palestinian health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were eliminated in Wednesday's operations.

In Jenin earlier, Israeli bulldozers edged along empty, rubbish-strewn streets as the noise of drones pierced the sky. The soldiers browsed ambulances on the streets and in front of Jenin's main health center, having blocked off access to it on Wednesday to prevent fighters from looking for refuge there.

Israel stated among the five militants eliminated in the Tulkarm mosque was Muhhamad Jabber, known as Abu Shujaa, the head of a. network of fighters in the adjacent Nur Shams refugee camp.

The Tulkarm department of Islamic Jihad's armed wing said: As. part of the response to the assassination of our leader, our. fighters had the ability to ambush an infantry force in the Manshiyya. axis behind Abu Ubaida Mosque.

The militant group claimed direct hits on Israeli soldiers. after it detonated an explosive device near them.

In a statement, human rights group Amnesty International. called the stepped-up scale of West Bank battling alarming and. said Israel has a responsibility, as the inhabiting power, to. safeguard health centers and safeguard Palestinians, their. homes and their facilities.

Clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank have escalated. since Israel's war with Hamas militants began in Gaza nearly 11. months earlier.

More than 660 - contenders and civilians - have been eliminated,. by Palestinian tallies, some by Jewish settlers who have. carried out frequent vigilante-style attacks on West Bank. Palestinian communities.

ESCALATING CLASHES

Israel says Iran supplies weapons and assistance to militant. factions in the West Bank and the armed force has, as a result,. cranked up its operations there.

Referring to the latest operation, Israeli Foreign Minister. Israel Katz said in a post on X overnight: This is a war in. every sense, and we must win it.

He accused Iran of working to destabilise Jordan and. establish an eastern front versus Israel, as it had actually carried out in. Gaza and in Lebanon, where Israel has been trading nearly daily. fire with militants from the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah.

Katz said that to deal with the risk of an eastern front,. Israel would have to use all essential means, including, in. cases of intense battle, allowing the population to momentarily. evacuate from one area to another to avoid civilian. damage.

In the Gaza Strip, evacuation orders have actually displaced nearly. all of the seaside enclave's 2.3 million individuals numerous times,. generating lethal hunger and disease.

Amnesty said it is likely the intensified scale of Israel's. West Bank operation would lead to an increase in forced. displacement, damage of crucial infrastructure and. measures of cumulative punishment, which have actually been essential pillars. of what it called Israel's system of apartheid.

Israel rejects having any practice of cumulative punishment. or apartheid in the West Bank, stating it seeks only to beat. armed Palestinian militants threatening its security.

The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian violence started on. Oct. 7 after Hamas militants stormed from Gaza into southern. Israel, eliminating 1,200 and taking more than 250 captives,. according to Israeli figures.

Israel's Gaza project has actually given that demolished swathes of the. enclave, and eliminated more than 40,500 individuals, Palestinian health. authorities state.

(source: Reuters)