Israeli air strike kills three in Jenin, the first in months

An Israeli air strike killed three young men on Friday afternoon at Hursh al-Saada, an area on the western side of Jenin city near the refugee camp, in the northern occupied West Bank. It was the first reported Israeli attack from the air in the West Bank in months.

The Palestinian health ministry named one of the dead as Basil Mohammad Ibrahim Turkman, 26, and the other two, both aged 22, as Qais Ibrahim Mohammad al-Bitawi and Mu'min Mohammad Faris Jaradat. Israeli forces took away all three bodies, the ministry said.

Accounts of what was hit differ. Local sources described a drone striking a house still under construction, while the Israeli military and Israeli media reported that the target was a vehicle carrying three people.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its ambulance crews were called out and were detained by Israeli soldiers as soon as they reached the area. The crews were let go a short time later but were made to leave without evacuating anyone, dead or wounded, and medical equipment was taken from them, the society said. Soldiers moved into the surrounding streets, sealed off the site and turned back anyone trying to approach.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it had carried out what it called a "precise strike" and had killed al-Bitawi, whom it described as responsible for Hamas activity in Jenin refugee camp and as having advanced a number of attacks. It said other men were killed alongside him and that a weapon was found in their vehicle. Israel has confirmed only al-Bitawi's killing and has not confirmed the other two identities.

Hamas mourned the three men and said Israel bore full responsibility for the strike, but did not name al-Bitawi as one of its own. Islamic Jihad said he belonged to the senior ranks of its armed wing.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the strike as a successful pre-emptive operation. Defence Minister Israel Katz said it was the product of what he called an offensive policy in the West Bank, and that Israeli forces would stay in Jenin refugee camp permanently, as they have in other camps.

The camp was largely emptied of its residents during a military operation earlier in the war, and Israeli forces have kept up raids and a heavy presence across the governorate since. What is new here is the method: air strikes had until now been rare in the West Bank, which Israel has policed with ground raids, arrest operations and long closures. A strike delivered from the air, in a built-up area where ambulances were then kept out, moves the West Bank closer to the pattern of the war in Gaza.

Israeli forces also detained a man named Ibrahim al-Bitawi near the al-Naseem roundabout in Jenin the same day, according to a Palestinian news agency correspondent.