Israel kills three Palestinians in rare West Bank drone strike targeting Hamas operative

Story Timeline
5 days · 2 summary articles
Israel kills three Palestinians in rare West Bank drone strike targeting Hamas operative
Israel bars two Swedish MEPs from West Bank as settler raids and strikes escalate
Continuation
An Israeli drone strike killed three Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, marking the first such attack in the territory since February 2025, according to Al Jazeera .
Israel’s military confirmed the strike, stating it targeted a Hamas operative identified as Qais Bitawi, whom Hamas later acknowledged as a member. The military described the operation as a “precise strike” against a group of militants . A separate report by Japan Today noted the military said the airstrike killed Bitawi and two accomplices .
The strike follows a pattern of escalating tensions in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported on Friday that Israeli settlers had been responsible for 89 fires targeting Palestinian homes and property since January 2023, displacing thousands .
Hamas condemned the Jenin strike, while Israeli authorities framed it as a counterterrorism measure. The use of airstrikes in the West Bank remains rare, with the last confirmed incident occurring over a year prior .
In a separate development, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on Friday to address the forced return of nearly 200,000 people to Haiti so far in 2026, a 10% increase over the same period last year. The discussion followed a gang attack near Port-au-Prince that killed 47 people, with Haiti urging the full deployment of a U.N.-mandated Gang Suppression Force to combat rising violence .
Follow us for live European news
- 2
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
7 further sources not geolocated












