Israeli soldier killed in attack in West Bank, IDF said

An Israeli soldier was killed and another seriously wounded in a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the military said on Thursday, the latest in a series of violent Israeli raids in the city.

The killed soldier, the commander of a sniper team, was “killed during an operation,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a brief statement that gave few details. Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, reported that one Palestinian was injured in the attack.

Jenin, in the northern West Bank, is home to a refugee camp built over 70 years ago for Palestinians displaced during the wars that created Israel. The city and the camp are strongholds of armed resistance to the occupation. Israel has carried out frequent raids there over the years, but they have become more frequent since October 7, when Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel that sparked a war in Gaza.

The military arrested 28 people during the overnight raid, nine of whom remain in custody, including Jamal Hawail, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, said a statement from the Commission for Prisoners’ and Former Prisoners’ Affairs, which is affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a non-governmental organization. The council sets the policies of Fatah, the political party that controls the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli statement did not comment on the arrests.

Hundreds of Palestinians were arrested in the raids. According to Israeli authorities, the raids are part of the anti-terror operations against Hamas and an escalation of the war.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said this month that Israeli forces and settlers had killed more than 500 people in the West Bank since October 7. During the same period, 24 Israelis, including eight members of the security forces, were killed in the West Bank and in Israel in clashes or, as Israel called them, attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank, Türk said.