The Israeli army announced on Saturday that two Palestinians were killed overnight in the occupied West Bank, where a military operation has entered its fourth day.
The Palestinians were allegedly preparing to carry out bombings when they were targeted by Israeli forces.
The incident occurred in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, where a vehicle explosion took place at a petrol station.
The Israeli army described the event as an “attempted car bombing by a terrorist” who was later killed.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad praised the operation, with Hamas calling it a “heroic operation” that came at a “sensitive time” amid Israeli raids in the northern West Bank.
An army officer “was moderately injured, and a reservist officer responsible for the security in a nearby community sustained minor injuries,” it said in a statement.
In the second incident, the head of security in the Israeli settlement of Karmei Zur engaged in a car chase with a “terrorist” who had infiltrated the settlement compound, leading to a collision and “the terrorist being neutralised shortly after”, the statement said.
“During the confrontation, an explosive device in the terrorist’s car detonated,” it added.
Since Wednesday at least 20 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, most of them militants, in simultaneous raids in several cities in the northern West Bank.
Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camps, long a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.
On Saturday morning, an AFP photographer in Jenin heard ongoing clashes in the city, where the streets were mostly empty save for armoured vehicles, including one that blocked access to the government hospital.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Of the 20 Palestinians reported dead since Wednesday, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have said at least 13 were members of their armed wings.
