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Israel kills five Palestinians, including two teenagers, in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank

The month of August, along with January, is already one of the deadliest in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, with nearly fifty Palestinians killed in Israeli incursions – two of them at the hands of settlers – and the main focus of the action: the Palestinian city of Tulkarem. The previous night, five other Palestinians, including two teenagers, were killed in the Nur Shams refugee camp when an Israeli drone struck their home with two missiles.

“It was a terrible night,” Ashraf, a resident of Nour Shams, told EFE. “I was awake and the first thing we heard was two loud explosions and everything was covered in smoke. “The children started crying in fear and after 10 minutes, we heard another loud explosion.” With their deaths, now in the month of August alone, 18 Palestinians have been killed in Tulkarem, all by drones; a figure that is higher than any other point in the occupied West Bank. And like in Jenin, a historic center of armed resistance, a total of 80 Palestinians have been killed here in 2024, many of them militiamen, according to an EFE analysis based on Palestinian Health Ministry data.

Tulkarem is regularly attacked by the Israeli army, and under the protection offered by the streets of Nur Shams, Palestinian militant groups remain very active, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with young men willing to risk their lives to prevent the entry of soldiers. The Israeli army said last night that the target of the attack was an “operations room” used by militants in the Nur Shams refugee camp, without giving further details. At least two of the dead have been claimed by Hamas’s armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades.

The Palestinian territory of the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is experiencing its worst period of violence in two decades. And since the war in Gaza began in October, around 645 Palestinians have lost their lives, most of them in Israeli raids and at least a dozen at the hands of settlers. This morning, a 37-year-old Palestinian was killed south of Bethlehem in the central West Bank, in clashes with Israeli settlers and soldiers. (EFE)