Eight Palestinians, including two women, were killed in an Israeli military operation in two refugee camps in the Tulkarem area, in the northern occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, quoted by Agence France-Presse and BTA.
The Israeli army said in turn that it had eliminated a terrorist.
The military wing of "Hamas" confirmed that two of its fighters were among those killed in yesterday's operation.
The Israeli army, meanwhile, said today, quoted by Reuters, that its commander suffered moderate injuries when his vehicle hit an explosive device during the operation.
He was evacuated to receive medical attention. No other Israeli soldiers were injured.
The situation in the West Bank, which has been tense for years, escalated after the attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel on October 7 last year. At least 811 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied territory since then by Israeli soldiers or Jewish settlers, according to Palestinian Authority figures. During the same period, 25 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, were killed in the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers stormed an Indonesian-built hospital in the isolated northern Gaza Strip and forced all patients and most doctors to leave, the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave's health ministry said, as quoted by the Associated Press and BTA.
The Israeli military confirmed that its soldiers entered the hospital in the town of Jabaliya as part of an operation to search for Hamas militants.
Winter has descended on the Gaza Strip, and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 15-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian city of Bethlehem celebrated a somber Christmas Eve under the shadow of the war in Gaza, with most celebrations canceled and crowds of tourists absent.
Meanwhile, three UN and US officials said Israel had failed to crack down on armed gangs attacking food convoys in Gaza despite a mid-October pledge to do so to help avert famine in the Palestinian enclave. The pledge, made behind closed doors, appeared to be a breakthrough because since the start of the war in October 2023, the international community has struggled to rally Israel's support to improve the dire humanitarian situation in the war-torn territory, the sources added.
They said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) remained focused on its fight against "Hamas" and have taken only limited action against gangs operating in Israeli-controlled parts of Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has referred questions about the pledge and aid operations in Gaza to the military. An IDF spokesman declined to comment on the October agreement and what has been done to curb looting.
UN and US officials say gang violence has spiraled out of control, cutting off supply lines that most of Gaza's 2.1 million civilians rely on for survival.
In October, attacks and looting destroyed $9.5 million worth of food and other goods - almost a quarter of all humanitarian aid sent to Gaza that month, according to a previously unreleased report on the incidents by UN aid agencies and charities. An assessment of the November looting is still being prepared, but preliminary data suggests it was much more severe, according to Reuters sources.
Israel announced that a former hostage who died of illness as a result of her captivity in the Gaza Strip has been recognized as a victim of the attack of October 7 last year, Agence France-Presse reported, quoted by BTA.
„Hannah Katzir, 76, who was kidnapped from her home in Nir Oz during the October 7 attack and released during the ceasefire on November 24, 2023, died on December 24, 2024 due to her deteriorating health after her release. "She has been recognized as a victim of terrorism," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Yesterday, Kibbutz Nir Oz announced the death of Hana Katzir, who was kidnapped along with her son during the unprecedented "Hamas" attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaza war.
Her husband Rami was killed in their home the same day, and the body of her 47-year-old son Elad, who died in captivity, was returned to Israel in April and buried in Nir Oz.
Netanyahu issued a condolence message to the Katsir family, reaffirming the authorities' commitment to "do everything possible to bring all our hostages home."
"We managed to bring Hana home [...], but her body and soul bore the scars of terror until her last day," the statement said.
Kibbutz Nir Oz, located in close proximity to the Gaza Strip, paid a high price in the "Hamas" attack - about 30 of its residents were killed and more than 70 people were taken hostage. Over 25 of them are still in Gaza, some of whom have died in captivity.