Palestinian officials reported at least three deaths on Thursday following an Israeli raid on a village in the occupied northern West Bank.
The Israeli Defense Force did not immediately respond to questions about the raid in the village of Jaba, which took place south of the volatile city of Jenin. The Israeli military operation that resulted in the deaths was not specified, but the Palestinian Health Ministry claimed that the victims had been killed by Israeli fire.
Disillusioned young Palestinians from the village of Jaba have been gathering in recent months to form a militant group and fight Israel’s indefinite occupation, which is now in its 56th year. This group is representative of a larger phenomenon: the emergence of armed groups in the West Bank that reject the increasingly unpopular Palestinian Authority and insist they have no affiliation with any existing political party.
The West Bank has seen rising levels of violence over the past two months.
