Tulkarem:

The Israeli army said troops killed five Palestinian “terrorists” barricaded in a building during a 12-hour siege in the occupied West Bank on Saturday.

An AFP photographer saw a heavy military deployment in the village of Deir al-Ghusun, near the northern town of Tulkarem.

Troops deployed a bulldozer to flatten a building and carried at least one body out of the rubble, the photographer reported.

Israeli forces “engaged in an extensive 12-hour counterterrorism operation in the Tulkarem area,” the army and the Shin Bet security service said in a joint statement.

They said troops had come under fire after entering the village to “neutralise a terrorist cell” and had “retaliated” with “live ammunition, shoulder-fired missiles and other weaponry”.

An army drone registered two hits on the building before sappers moved in to “dismantle” it.

“The confrontation ended with the elimination of five terrorists, and the seizure of military gear and weapon components,” the joint statement said.

A member of a counterterrorism unit of Israel’s border police was wounded in the operation, it added.

The already restive West Bank has seen a surge in violence since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7. At least 496 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers, according to an AFP tally.

The Gaza war started with an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,654 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

West Bank:

A 15-year-old Palestinian boy riding a bicycle stabbed two Israeli security personnel at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday before he was shot dead, police said.

The attack occurred at around 8:15 am (0615 GMT) at the Tunnels checkpoint south of Jerusalem when the teenager arrived on a bicycle, the force said in a statement.

“When security forces at the crossing attempted to check him, the terrorist drew a knife and began stabbing the forces present at the scene,” the police said.

“An armed civilian guard immediately engaged with the terrorist, and simultaneously IDF (army) forces at the location responded with precise gunfire neutralising the terrorist.”

A female soldier and a civilian armed guard were wounded in the stabbing, the police said, adding their injuries were “mild to moderate”.

Police later pronounced the attacker dead. 

Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that the Palestinian teenager was “left to bleed until he died” by security forces at the checkpoint.

The knife attack comes a day after a 12-year-old Palestinian boy died after being shot by Israeli border police at a refugee camp in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Rami Hamdan al-Halhuli, 12, suffered a fatal gunshot wound during clashes between residents of the Shuafat refugee camp and police, who said the child had aimed fireworks at them.

Hundreds of extra police have been deployed in the Old City of east Jerusalem since the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began on Monday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)