RAMALLAH: Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed six people in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, while the Israeli military confirmed it killed four militants in an air strike.
The health ministry in Ramallah said four Palestinians were killed and three were wounded “as a result of the (Israeli) bombing of a vehicle in Tulkarem camp,” in the northern West Bank.
The military said Tarek Doush, a militant from the “Tulkarem terrorist network,” was among those killed.
“Over the past year, Tarek recruited numerous terrorists, armed and funded by Iran and by Lebanese terror operatives ... to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israelis,” the military said.
“The terrorist network led by Tarek carried out multiple shooting attacks against IDF soldiers, as well as shooting attacks against checkpoints and communities near the Judea and Samaria security fence in the area of Tulkarem,” it said, referring to the biblical names for the West Bank.
The strike killed Doush and three other militants, the military added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said two Palestinians were killed in a raid in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus.
One of the dead was 80-year-old Halima Abu Leil, who had been shot in the chest and leg, it said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed her death after transporting her to the hospital.
The ministry also announced the death of a 25-year-old man in the same raid. His passing was confirmed by the Red Crescent.
The Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of firing at its ambulances, “obstructing the delivery of humanitarian and medical services inside the camp.”
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the war in Gaza began on October 7 last year, following Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Since the start of the Gaza war, at least 803 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
In the same period, Palestinian attacks have claimed the lives of at least 24 Israelis in the West Bank, based on Israeli official data.
Israel has maintained an occupation of the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Palestinians say Israeli forces kill six in West Bank
https://arab.news/bdps2
Palestinians say Israeli forces kill six in West Bank
Iran temporarily closes airspace to most flights
WASHINGTON: Iran temporarily closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website.
The prohibition is set to last for more than two hours until 7:30 p.m. ET, or 0030 GMT, but could be extended, the notice said. The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
Missile and drone barrages in a growing number of conflict zones represent a high risk to airline traffic. India’s largest airline, IndiGo said some of its international flights would be impacted by Iran’s sudden airspace closure. A flight by Russia’s Aeroflot bound for Tehran returned to Moscow after the closure, according to tracking data from Flightradar24.
Earlier on Wednesday, Germany issued a new directive cautioning the country’s airlines from entering Iranian airspace, shortly after Lufthansa rejigged its flight operations across the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.
The United States already prohibits all US commercial flights from overflying Iran and there are no direct flights between the countries. Airline operators like flydubai and Turkish Airlines have canceled multiple flights to Iran in the past week. “Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information.
“The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.” Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice while it would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman from Wednesday until Monday next week so that crew would not have to stay overnight.
Some flights could also be canceled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement. Italian carrier ITA Airways, in which Lufthansa Group is now a major shareholder, said that it would similarly suspend night flights to Tel Aviv until Tuesday next week.
