Israel launches an airstrike on Sunday on the northern West Bank town of Jenin, according to BBC.
This is not Israel’s first strike, when religious sites are targeted. Palestinian Authority officials said a recent strike on the Al-Ansar mosque killed two people.
The Israeli military justified its attack on the grounds that those killed belonged to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups and were organizing an “imminent terrorist attack”. The compound they used was located under a mosque and had been in use since July. The IDF published images of the entrances to the compound, as well as images of weapons, computers, and security measures found within the compound.
Notably, the IDF did not confirm whether an aircraft, helicopter or drone was used in the strike on Jenin on Sunday, but Israeli media reported that it was a fighter jet. The reports said that if confirmed, it would be only the second time in two decades that a fighter jet has struck a target in the West Bank.
The Gaza Strip is ruled by Fatah rival Hamas, which on 7 October carried out deadly attacks on Israeli military posts and kibbutzim near Gaza, killing more than 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages in Gaza.
Israel has been conducting intense aerial bombardment of Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive and has vowed to destroy Hamas as an organization.
55 more Palestinians were killed overnight in Israeli airstrikes, bringing the total since 7 October to more than 4,300, more than half of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
