NABLUS – Six Palestinians were killed and nearly 20 others injured early today in sweeping raids by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that Wadih Al Houh, a militant leader of a new coalition of Palestinian fighters dubbed “The Lions’ Den”, had been among those killed in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The Palestinian Health Ministry initially reported three dead and 19 wounded, three of them seriously, shot “by Israeli fire in Nablus”.
Later statements said that two more Palestinians had died in Nablus, while another Palestinian was also killed in overnight clashes near Ramallah.
The Israeli army said it had carried out a vast operation with police and intelligence officers targeting a site “used by the main operatives of the ‘Lion’s Den’”, describing it as a “headquarters and a workshop for making weapons” of the militants.
“The forces detonated the explosive manufacturing site,” the army statement added, which did not provide a death toll. “During the activity, multiple armed suspects were hit.”
Violence has increased in recent months in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by Israel, especially in the areas of Nablus and Jenin.
More than 100 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed since the start of the year, the heaviest toll in the West Bank for nearly seven years, according to the United Nations.
Lapid, speaking on Israeli public broadcaster Kan radio, warned Palestinian militants that “they need to know that we will reach them wherever they are”, he said.
“Israel will never stop acting for its security and we will do what needs to be done,” he added. “The goal is to reduce terrorism and ensure that it does not affect Israeli citizens.” – AFP, October 25, 2022
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