JENIN: More than 100 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied West Bank since war erupted between the Zionist entity and Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas on Oct 7, the health ministry said Wednesday. Violence had already spiraled in the West Bank before the Gaza war, with the highest death toll in the Palestinian territory since at least 2005.

Many of the Palestinian deaths came in raids by Zionist troops but there has also been a rise in clashes between Palestinians and Zionist settlers. Since Oct 7, tensions and bloodshed have surged in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, with the Palestinian death toll reaching 102, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry. Over the same period, the Zionist military has reported one member of the security forces killed while taking part in a raid. — AFP

In the latest violence, four Palestinians were killed in Jenin and one in Qalqilya, both in the northern West Bank. One Palestinian was also killed in Qalandia, just north of Jerusalem. The health ministry blamed Israeli “bullets and missiles”. Troops also opened fire in Qalandia. The Zionist entity has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Zionist war and withdrew from Gaza in 2005, subsequently imposing a crippling blockade on the coastal territory. – AFP