Destructive Israeli Raid in West Bank Kills 5, Palestinians Say

The Israeli military said its soldiers had engaged in close combat in the Nur Shams area of the occupied territory.

The Israeli military said on Friday that it had concluded a raid in the occupied West Bank overnight after killing several militants, in an operation that residents and humanitarian groups said caused significant damage to roads and other civilian infrastructure.

The military did not specify the number of fighters killed or their affiliations, but said its soldiers had engaged in “close-quarters combat” in the Nur Shams area, on the outskirts of the town of Tulkarm.

Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank under Israeli occupation, said Israeli forces had killed at least five people in the area. It said more than two dozen others had been detained in raids elsewhere in the West Bank, including in the cities of Ramallah, Nablus and Qalqilya.

Humanitarian groups and local residents said the raid took a severe toll on the infrastructure of Nur Shams, and on its people, many of whom took shelter in their homes as gunfire was heard in the streets.

Nihad Shaweesh, an official in Nur Shams, said soldiers had searched dozens of homes, questioned residents and took up positions in residential buildings. Historically a refugee camp for Palestinians following the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s establishment, Nur Shams is now a built-up neighborhood.

Philippe Lazzarini, the director of UNRWA, the main United Nations agency that assists Palestinians, said in a post on X the raid had destroyed roads, water and electricity networks in Nur Shams. He added that it had also resulted in the destruction of an UNRWA office that was a hub for delivering services to more than 14,000 Palestinians, including education, health and sanitation.

Mr. Lazzarini said that Israeli military bulldozers had destroyed part of the agency’s offices, a claim echoed by local officials. But the Israeli military issued a firm denial. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman, said that Palestinian militants had placed explosives near the building and detonated them in an attempt to harm Israeli soldiers.

“The explosives likely caused damage to the structure,” Colonel Shoshani said, dismissing Mr. Lazzarini’s statement as “terrorist propaganda.”

A resident of Nur Shams, Khalil Abu Slim, 41, said his small mobile phone store was destroyed during the Israeli raid. The store was near the UNRWA office, which is a small building that had been in a dilapidated state for months and consisted of little more than a few rooms under a tin roof.

“Twice before, the army blew up my shop’s doors to search it, but this time they left nothing,” he said Thursday as he cleared debris from inside his shop. “It was all bulldozed.”

He said damage to the central area of Nur Shams had been severe. “This area is simply an open commercial space where people run their daily errands and buy goods,” he said.

Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.

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