\n<\/p>\n
Five Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.<\/p>\n
The Palestinian Red Crescent said a drone targeted a group of five young men near a mosque in the city of Tubas at dawn on Wednesday, and an ambulance crew transferred the bodies to the local government hospital.<\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an aircraft struck an \u201carmed terrorist cell\u201d during counter-terrorism activity by security forces in Tubas and the nearby town of Tamun.<\/p>\n
An Israeli military official said later that a curfew had been declared in Tubas as part of the operation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The government hospital has been surrounded and people can exit and enter only subject to being checked by forces, according to the official.<\/p>\n
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces were carrying out large-scale raids on the city\u2019s outskirts and several neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Wafa also said an Israeli military operation was continuing in the city of Tulkarm and its refugee camps for a second day.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said a Palestinian man and woman were killed by gunfire from Israeli forces in Tulkarm. The IDF did not comment on the incident.<\/p>\n
It comes days after the largest Israeli operation in the West Bank since Hamas\u2019s attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The health ministry said at least 36 Palestinians were killed during the nine-day operation in the Tubas, Tulkarm and Jenin areas. Most of the dead were claimed by armed groups as members, but the ministry said children were also among those killed.<\/p>\n
An Israeli soldier was also killed during the fighting in Jenin.<\/p>\n
Also on Wednesday, Israeli paramedics said an Israeli man was in a critical condition following a ramming attack by a lorry near the Jewish settlement of Givat Assaf.<\/p>\n
The IDF said the attacker was “neutralised” at the scene. <\/p>\n
Israeli media identified the lorry driver as a Palestinian man from Rafat, near Ramallah.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, three Israeli security guards were shot dead by a Jordanian lorry driver at the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank.<\/p>\n
There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since last October.<\/p>\n
More than 690 Palestinians have been killed, the Palestinian health ministry says, as Israeli forces have intensified their nearly daily search and arrest raids.<\/p>\n
Israel says it is trying to stem Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel, in which 28 Israelis had been killed as of 2 September, according to the UN.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n