An Israeli drone strike killed three cousins, including two children, in the West Bank on Wednesday, according to Palestinian officials and their families, threatening to further destabilize the Israeli-occupied territories in an escalation of violence. .
The attack struck the courtyard of his cousins’ home in the town of Tumon, said Ahmed Assad, the governor of Palestine’s Tubas region. He identified the dead as two young children, Rida Basharat and Hamza Basharat. And a young man named Addam Basharat.
According to Assad, the Israeli military captured the three men immediately after the airstrike, and it was unclear whether they were alive or dead. Israeli officials then informed the Palestinians that three people had been killed, he added.
The Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs Department, which is responsible for coordinating with Israel, announced on Wednesday night that Israeli authorities had handed over the bodies of the three cousins for funerals.
The Israeli military announced it had launched a drone strike against a “terrorist organization” in Tamun, but did not immediately comment on claims that two children had been killed. It later issued a statement saying, “Due to various reports regarding the outcome of the strike, this incident is under review.”
The cousins’ next of kin could not be immediately reached, but one member of the family, Mamun Abu Mushin, said in a telephone interview Wednesday night that his cousin’s body had been returned by the Israeli military. Confirmed death.
Violence has escalated in the West Bank over the past year and a half, as Israel is at war with militant groups including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli forces have escalated raids on Palestinian cities in the West Bank, sometimes lasting days at a time, bulldozing roads and engaging in gun battles with Hamas and Palestinian Jihad militants. I am doing some things.
Wednesday’s airstrike followed a Palestinian shooting that killed three Israelis, including two women in their 70s, two days earlier. Israeli officials immediately vowed retaliation for the deadly attack.
“We are witnessing an acceleration of Palestinian attempts to promote terrorism in Judea and Samaria,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday, using the West Bank’s Biblical name. Ta. The Israeli government considers the West Bank to be a conflict zone, not occupied territory. He said Israel would take “a proportionate response” to protect its approximately 500,000 people living in West Bank settlements.
More than 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, following the Hamas-led offensive that sparked the Gaza war, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health. The number of fighters is unknown, but the number includes some civilians, including women and children, killed by Israeli security forces.
Around 50 Israelis were killed by Palestinians in militant attacks in the West Bank during the same period, according to the United Nations. Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, announced it had thwarted more than 1,000 attacks in 2024, including hundreds of shootings.
The Palestinian Authority, which controls some areas under Israeli occupation, also launched its own operation against Palestinian militants in Jenin in December. Several Palestinian officers were killed, as well as some civilians, including a young woman and a teenage bystander.
