RAMALLAH: Zionist forces killed five Palestinians Sunday morning at a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the Zionist army launched air strikes on the camp.

The death toll from the raid on the Nur Shams camp in the West Bank city of Tulkarm climbed to five after the announcement of the deaths of two men aged 19 and 21 in hospital, the ministry said. The Zionist operation at the camp began during the night, according to witnesses. The director of the Thabet Thabet hospital, Amin Khader, told AFP that “five people arrived at the hospital with wounds, including one to the head”.

Sources told Palestinian state media agency WAFA that at least two of the victims were killed in a drone strike which targeted them while they were in the Nour Shams refugee camp. The strike also left several others wounded. Simultaneously, the Zionist forces initiated widespread arrests, infrastructure destruction, and declared the camp a closed military zone as large-scale forces stormed the city and the refugee camp from multiple directions.

WAFA correspondent reported the murder of Jihad Aarneh, 25, Mahmoud Samer Jaber, 22, Ghayth Yasser Shahada, 25, Waleed Asa’ad Zahra, 22, and Asa’ad As’ad Zahra, 33, as a result of the Zionist airstrike, reportedly carried out by an unmanned drone. The two were left bleeding, as he occupation forces prevented ambulance access to the camp.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that the Zionist forces obstructed emergency medical teams from entering Nour Shams camp to reach a critically injured person with a head injury, despite coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross. A volunteer paramedic was also arrested by Zionist forces from inside an ambulance, the sources added.

A Zionist military spokesperson said air strikes had targeted “terrorist groups who opened fire and threw explosives, putting IDF (army) forces in danger”. “At least four terrorists were killed and others were injured” during the raid, the spokesperson said, adding that four others were arrested. “During searches, combatants found a bomb in a clinic where wanted people were hiding,” the spokesperson added.

More than 290 Palestinians have been killed by Zionist forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 7, health officials say. The Zionist entity has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Zionist war. Jenin in particular has been the scene of repeated raids in recent months that have left dozens dead. — Agencies