The Israeli military said on Tuesday it killed three Hamas members in an air strike near the occupied West Bank city of Tubas, after the Palestinian Health Ministry reported two people were killed.
“Three Hamas militants who were planning an imminent terrorist attack were killed” when the Israeli Air Force attacked vehicles in the Aqaba area near Tubas, the military said.
Following the attack, “troops conducted a targeted raid in the area surrounding the attack, finding four weapons.”
The Palestinian Health Ministry had earlier said that two Palestinians were killed and one wounded in an Israeli attack on a vehicle in Aqaba.
It said the three Palestinians were taken to a hospital in Tubas, but later said Israeli forces raided the same hospital, but the army denied this in a statement to AFP.
The Israeli military previously told AFP that the air force “acted on intelligence and struck a terrorist cell in the Aqaba area that was about to carry out an attack”.
It said an army unit was “sent to collect the bodies and carry out the operation in the area of the Turkish hospital in Tubas”.
However, it added, “He did not enter the hospital.”
Israel often confiscates the bodies of Palestinians killed during operations, especially those belonging to terrorist groups, although an AFP journalist near the hospital at the time of the operation did not see soldiers taking away bodies.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces surrounded the hospital, firing inside, “attacking staff and patients and arresting many of them”, before forcing their way inside.
An AFP journalist in Tubas saw Israeli armored vehicles outside the hospital and soldiers stationed around it.
The journalist witnessed Israeli soldiers exit the hospital and detain staff, some of whom were wearing scrubs or doctor’s gowns, before loading them into armored vehicles.
Violence in the West Bank has increased since the war in Gaza broke out following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 787 Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
At least 24 people have also been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
