Live updates | Israel's forces raid a West Bank refugee camp as its military expands Gaza offensive
Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have raided a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, killing at least six Palestinians
Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, killing at least six Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities said early Wednesday. The Israeli military had also expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to the densely populated urban refugee camps in the central part of the territory Tuesday.
Residents reported shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps in the tiny, cramped enclave. The built-up towns hold Palestinians whose families fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s independence. The camps are now crowded with Palestinians who fled northern Gaza in the early stages of Israel’s ground offensive.
More than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.
About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, with around 240 people taken hostage. Israel says it aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.
