Israeli forces kill at least 12 in raids on West Bank

KAFR QUD(WEST BANK): Israeli forces backed by drone strikes killed at least 12 people in the occupied West Bank, medics said on Tuesday, after raids around two flashpoint cities in the north led to gunbattles with Palestinian militants.

The Israeli military said it conducted two separate air strikes in the volatile city of Jenin, hitting armed militant cells, but gave no details. The Palestinian health ministry said five people were killed in the strikes against two vehicles in Jenin, one of the most turbulent centres of militant activity in the West Bank. Another person was critically wounded.

The strikes came during an Israeli military operation in Jenin in which footage shared on social media showed a column of armoured personnel carriers entering the city and armoured bulldozers digging up roads. In the wake of that raid, Israeli forces surrounded a house in the village of Kafr Qud, close to Jenin. Local Palestinian medical workers said three people were killed in the ensuing shootout, with another two wounded.


There were no details on the identity of the dead and it was not immediately clear whether they were members of any of the armed militant factions.

'Policy of prisoner abuse'
Meanwhile, a report issued Monday by Israeli rights group B'Tselem said Tel Aviv has conducted a systematic policy of prisoner abuse and torture since the start of the Gaza war, subjecting Palestinian detainees to acts ranging from arbitrary violence to sexual abuse.

It said the report was based on interviews with 55 Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel detained in Israeli prisons since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, most of them without being tried.

A spokesperson for the Israel Prison Service said that all prisoners were treated according to the law and all basic rightsw ere fully applied by professionally trained guards. "We are not aware of the claims you described and as far as we know," the spokesperson said.