Israel Continues Its Military Raids in the West Bank

Israel has continued its military raids in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, saying it is working to dismantle militant groups and prevent increasing militant attacks on Israelis.

The Red Crescent said on Wednesday three people were killed in a strike on a car in a village outside Tulkarem.

The IDF confirmed it carried out a strike there but provided no immediate details.

Palestinians say such operations are aimed at cementing Israel’s seemingly open-ended military rule over the territory.

At the same time, Jewish settlers have accelerated attacks on Palestinians.

The IDF on Wednesday said it launched assaults around the West Bank town of Tulkarem and in two northern towns.

It said it dismantled an explosives lab, a weapons manufacturing workshop and an explosives-rigged vehicle.

The IDF also said an airstrike backing troops operating in the town of Tubas killed five militants.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed five were killed but did not specify if they were militants or civilians.

The embattled territory was already seeing deadly clashes before the Israel-Hamas war began.

But Israeli forces, which police about 3 million Palestinians while assigned to protect 500,000 Jewish settlers, has significantly stepped up raids in the months since.

Nearly 700 Palestinians were slain in the West Bank since the war began, the most since the violent uprising known as the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. More than 20 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed in the territory since October.