News / Palestine

Israel military kills 3 Palestinians in occupied West Bank drone strike

Wednesday, 21 June 2023 9:55 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 21 June 2023 9:55 PM ]

File photo of an Israeli drone

The Israeli military has killed three Palestinians in a drone strike targeting their vehicle in a village located in the north-central part of the occupied West Bank.

The military carried out the attack in the village of Turmus Ayya on Wednesday, accusing the vehicle's occupants of belonging to a "terrorist cell."

Describing the aftermath of the attack, Kamal Abu al-Roub, deputy governor of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, said there were "three dismembered bodies inside" the car, which he said had been hit by missiles.

So far this week, more than a dozen Palestinians have been killed in violence staged either by the military or armed Israeli settlers.

The fatalities include a Palestinian male, who was killed earlier on Wednesday when hundreds of the settlers went on a rampage across Turmus Ayya.

Local residents put the number of the aggressors at between 200 and 300, who began setting Palestinian residential structures and other buildings on fire and staging brutal violence against the villagers.

"Settlers shot at us and when the police and the Israeli army arrived they shot at us with rubber bullets and fired teargas," resident Awad Abu Samra told AFP.

Lafi Adeeb, Turmus Ayya mayor, told the agency that 35 houses had been damaged, around 50 cars torched, and farmland set ablaze.

A Palestinian health ministry statement said a deceased person had arrived "at the Palestine Medical Complex from Turmus Ayya after being shot in the chest."