Jenin (Palestinian Territories): Israel said it killed three Hamas militants in an air strike in the occupied West Bank on Friday, taking the death toll from a large-scale military operation now in its third day to at least 19. A top UN aid official meanwhile questioned "what has become of our basic humanity", as the war raged on in Gaza and humanitarian operations struggle to respond.
The United Nations has warned the military operation which Israel launched in the West Bank early on Wednesday is "fuelling an already explosive situation" in the territory and has pressed Israel to end it. In the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris pledged she will not change Washington's policy of supplying weapons to Israel if elected to the top job in November. But she stressed it was time to "end this war".
Israel has described its raids on towns and refugee camps across the northern West Bank as "counter-terrorism" operations. They have killed at least 19 Palestinians since Wednesday, the military and the Palestinian health ministry said. The military said it killed three Hamas militants in an air strike near the northern city of Jenin on Friday. Witnesses told AFP the strike hit a car in the town of Zababdeh, southeast of the city.
Israeli troops pulled back from other West Bank towns late Thursday but fighting raged on around Jenin, long a hub of militant activity. The AFP journalist reported loud explosions from the city's refugee camp and thick plumes of smoke rising from the area.
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In Gaza, Israeli artillery pounded western areas of Gaza City early Friday, an AFP journalist said, while a medical source at the southern Nasser Hospital said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern city of Khan Yunis. The World Health Organization said Israel had agreed to at least three days of "humanitarian pauses" in parts of Gaza, starting Sunday, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the first case of polio in a quarter of a century was recorded in the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the measures were "not a ceasefire" in the nearly 11-month-old war triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack. In the West Bank, the army said it killed seven militants on Thursday, including five militants in Tulkarem refugee camp. A military statement said one of the five was Muhammad Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, who Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said was its commander in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp.
Two other militants were killed in Jenin on Thursday, the military said. The Israeli assault has caused significant destruction, especially in Tulkarem, whose governor Mustafa Taqatqa described the raids as "unprecedented" and a "dangerous signal". The Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group said at least 45 people had been detained in the West Bank since Wednesday. An Israeli military spokesman said "10 wanted individuals were arrested".