TEL AVIV, AUG 28: The Israeli military said it struck “several terrorists” on Friday in the northern occupied West Bank, a rare airstrike in the partly semi-autonomous Palestinian territory that has seen growing tension.
“A short while ago, the IDF conducted a precise strike against several terrorists in the Jenin area. Details to follow,” the military said in a brief statement.
The West Bank, home to the Palestinian Authority, has seen soaring violence by Israeli settlers but has mostly avoided the Israeli military airstrikes that have devastated the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
In early 2025, the military launched a wide-ranging operation targeting refugee camps in the northern West Bank that it said was aimed at cracking down on Palestinian armed groups.
In February of that year, it deployed tanks in Jenin, which is known as a hotbed of Palestinian militancy.
The large-scale operation has caused the displacement of nearly 40,000 people from the camps, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, at least 1,100 Palestinians in the West Bank, including several armed fighters, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Authority data.
Official Israeli data shows at least 48 Israelis – civilians and soldiers – have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The Oslo Accords in the 1990s granted limited self-rule to the Palestinian Authority, whose ruling Fatah movement is a rival to Hamas.
