Gaza rockets, Israeli air strikes follow deadly raid in West Bank
- Israeli army and Palestinian militants trade air strikes and rocket fire in and around Gaza
- It followed an Israeli forces raid that killed 10 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
Palestinian militants in Gaza launched rockets at southern Israel and Israeli aircraft struck targets in the coastal enclave on Thursday after a deadly gun battle with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank killed 10 Palestinians.
A 66-year-old man died after the raid from tear gas inhalation. The bloodshed extends one of the deadliest periods in years between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the year. Palestinian attacks on Israelis in 2023 have killed 11 people.
The violence comes in the first weeks of Israel’s new far-right government, which has promised to take a tough line against the Palestinians and pledged to ramp up settlement construction on lands Palestinians seek for their future state.
Israel was bracing for a retaliation and police were stepping up security in sensitive areas. A day after a raid in January on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank that killed 10 Palestinians, a Palestinian shot and killed seven people outside a synagogue in east Jerusalem.
On Thursday, police said security guards at the entrance to a West Bank settlement shot a woman who police said attempted to stab the guards. Her condition was not immediately known.
The Israeli military said Palestinian militants fired six rockets from the Gaza Strip toward the country’s south early Thursday. The Israeli military said air defences intercepted five of the rockets, which were fired toward the cities of Ashkelon and Sderot. One missile landed in an open field.