Israeli authorities say three police killed in West Bank

Israeli police have confirmed that the three people killed in Sunday’s shooting attack in the occupied West Bank were members of their police force.

“Three members of the police force were killed this morning in a shooting attack,” Ouzi Levy, chief of the Israeli police in the West Bank, told reporters at the scene of the attack near the Tarqumiya checkpoint near the city of Hebron.

Two of the officers were declared dead at the scene, while the third officer was taken to hospital by helicopter but later died.

The shooting comes amid heightened tensions in the West Bank caused by an ongoing Israeli aggression in the occupied territory.

In the early hours of Wednesday, the Israeli army conducted its biggest operation – dubbed “Camps of Summer” – in the West Bank in over 20 years, deploying hundreds of troops and airstrikes on Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas, which are major centers of Palestinian resistance against the usurping entity.

So far, at least 25 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids and strikes in several West Bank towns, and many more sustained injuries.