Israeli drone targets ‘terrorist cell’ as West Bank violence escalates
- Israel carried out a rare air strike in the West Bank, on a car carrying suspected Palestinian militants
- Earlier, settlers attacked a Palestinian town, torching cars and buildings to avenge the deaths of four Israelis killed by Palestinian gunmen
Israel’s military on Wednesday killed three members of a “terrorist cell” in a rare West Bank drone strike, the army said, as violence there escalates with at least 13 Palestinians and four Israelis dead this week.
The army announced the strike after a Palestinian man was killed earlier Wednesday in an occupied West Bank village attacked by hundreds of Israelis.
Intelligence led Israel Defence Forces (IDF) personnel to identify the cell “inside a suspicious vehicle, after the cell carried out a shooting adjacent to the town of Jalamah”, near Jenin in the northern West Bank, an army statement said.
“Following the identification of the terrorist cell, an IDF UAV fired toward the cell and thwarted them,” it added referring to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
The strike is the first in the West Bank by the Israelis since August 2006, a Palestinian intelligence source said. Previously, the source said it was the first since 2005 before reporting two militants had been killed in a strike in 2006.
Kamal Abu al-Roub, deputy Jenin governor, said there were “three dismembered bodies inside” the car which he said had been hit by missiles. Roub cited information from firefighters sent to extinguish the blaze which engulfed the vehicle.