An Israeli drone strike killed three cousins, including two children, in the West Bank on Wednesday, according to the local Palestinian governor and a relative, as growing violence threatens to further destabilize the Israeli-occupied territory.
The attack struck the courtyard of the cousinsтАЩ home in the town of Tamoun, said Ahmed Asad, the Palestinian governor of the Tubas region. He identified the dead as two young children, Rida Basharat and Hamza Basharat, and Adham Basharat, a young adult.
Mr. Asad said that Israeli officials later informed their Palestinian counterparts that all three were dead and that their bodies were being held by Israel. The Israeli military said it launched a drone strike in Tamoun against a тАЬterrorist cell,тАЭ but did not immediately comment on reports in Palestinian media that two children were killed.
Their immediate families could not immediately be reached, but Mamun Abu Muhsin, a member of their extended family, confirmed their deaths in a phone interview on Wednesday night after he said their bodies were returned by Israel.
Violence has spiraled in the West Bank for the past year and a half, as Israel has fought wars with armed groups like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli forces have escalated raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank тАФ operations that can last for days at a time тАФ bulldozing roads and engaging in shootouts with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
WednesdayтАЩs aerial bombardment came in the wake of a Palestinian shooting attack two days earlier that killed three Israelis, including two women in their 70s. Israeli officials quickly vowed retribituion for the deadly attack.
тАЬWe are witnessing accelerating attempts to advance Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria,тАЭ said Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, on Wednesday, using the biblical names for the West Bank, which the Israeli government considers disputed, not occupied, territory. He said that Israel would тАЬrespond accordinglyтАЭ to protect its citizens, roughly 500,000 of whom live in settlements in the West Bank.
More than 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, in the wake of the Hamas-led attack that prompted the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry. It is unclear how many were combatants, but the numbers include some civilians, including women and children killed by Israeli security forces.
About 50 Israelis were killed by Palestinians in militant attacks in the West Bank over the same time, according to the United Nations. Shin Bet, IsraelтАЩs internal security agency, has said that it thwarted more than a thousand attacks in 2024, including hundreds of shooting attacks.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers some parts of the territory under Israeli occupation, also launched its own operation against Palestinian militants in Jenin in December. Several Palestinian officers have been killed, as well as some civilians, including a young woman and a teenage bystander.
