Palestinian health ministry says Israeli air strike kills 6 in West Bank

The Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday that an Israeli air strike on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank killed six people, including a teenager, with the Israeli military confirming it carried out an attack in the area.

"There are six martyrs and several injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of Jenin refugee camp," the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli military did not offer details but said it had carried out "an attack in the Jenin area".

The Palestinian ministry said among those killed was 15-year-old Mahmud Ashraf Mustafa Gharbiya.

Palestinian security forces of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) slammed the raid by the Israeli military.

"The pre-planned intervention ... thwarts all efforts being made to maintain security and order and restore life to normal," said Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the Palestinian forces, in a statement.

"It reflects the occupation's premeditated intentions to disrupt every national endeavour aimed at protecting our people."

Israeli forces make frequent raids on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Violence in the territory has soared since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 831 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the health ministry.

At least 28 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

In recent weeks Jenin has also seen intra-Palestinian violence, with PA forces clashing with militants.

The clashes broke out amid a major PA raid on the Jenin camp after the December 5 arrest of a Jenin Battalion commander on charges of possessing weapons and illicit funds.

Armed factions in Jenin and elsewhere see themselves as offering more effective resistance to the Israeli occupation than the PA, which coordinates security matters with Israel.