West Bank death toll rises to 181 since start of Gaza war

A ministry statement said a 51-year-old man was shot dead in the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, and a 30-year-old was killed in Dura town, south of Hebron.

At least 16 Palestinians were killed and over a dozen injured in an Israeli army raid into the northern West Bank city of Jenin, according to the ministry of health.

According to eyewitnesses, Israeli forces staged military raids into the Jenin and al-Amari refugee camps on Thursday amid clashes with Palestinian gunmen.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Oct. 7 amid an Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

At least 181 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,300 others have been arrested by the Israeli army in the occupied territory since then, according to Palestinian figures.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas a month ago.

At least 10,500 Palestinians, including more than 4,300 children and over 2,800 women, have been killed since Oct. 7. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is nearly 1,600, according to official figures.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths says conditions in the occupied West Bank are becoming “increasingly dire”.

He pointed to rising numbers of Palestinians killed and injured – including children – as well as growing displacement amid Israeli military and settler attacks.