TURMUS’AYYA: Israel’s military on Wednesday killed three members of a “terrorist cell” in a rare West Bank drone strike, the army said, as violence there escalates with at least 13 Palestinians and four Israelis dead this week.

The army announced the strike after a Palestinian man was killed earlier Wednesday in an occupied West Bank village attacked by hundreds of Israelis.

Intelligence led Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel to identify the cell “inside a suspicious vehicle, after the cell carried out a shooting adjacent to the town of Jalamah”, near Jenin in the northern West Bank, an army statement said.

A similar strike had not been carried out since 2005, a Palestinian intelligence source said.

Kamal Abu al-Roub, deputy Jenin governor, said there were “three dismembered bodies inside” the car which he said had been hit by missiles. Roub cited information from firefighters sent to extinguish a blaze which engulfed the vehicle.

Earlier, residents of Turmus Ayya put the number of Israeli settlers involved in the attack on their village at between 200 and 300, while AFP journalists saw scorched homes, buildings and wounded people being evacuated by ambulance.

The reprisals came hours after mourners held a funeral for a teenager killed in a Palestinian shooting targeting Israelis nearby.

“Settlers shot at us and when the police and the Israeli army arrived they shot at us with rubber bullets and fired tear gas,” resident Awad Abu Samra said.

Lafi Adeeb, Turmus Ayya mayor, said that 35 houses were damaged, around 50 cars torched and farmland set ablaze. A Palestinian health ministry statement said a deceased person arrived “at the Palestine Medical Complex from Turmus Ayya after being shot in the chest”.

The Israeli military said security forces entered Turmus Ayya “to extinguish the fires, prevent clashes and to collect evidence” after “Israeli civilians burned vehicles and possessions belonging to Palestinians”.

While protecting the firefighters, Israeli police became “the target of violence by dozens of Palestinians”, a police statement said. A shot was fired in their direction, and an officer returned fire “towards a rioter suspected of shooting at him,” the police said.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2023