Israeli forces killed 2 Palestinians in W Bank, 2 in Lebanon Thursday & 17 killed in Gaza last 48 hours
By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
GAZA
Gaza hospitals have received 17 killed and 19 injured Palestinians in the past 48 hours despite the ceasefire, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed 48,365 Palestinian deaths in Israel’s war on Gaza, while 111,780 people have been wounded. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to at least 61,709, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
Gaza’s death toll from Israel’s destructive war since October 2023 has reached 48,365, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
A ministry statement said the bodies of 17 Palestinians were recovered from the rubble in the last 24 hours.
According to the ministry, 19 more injured Palestinians were transferred to hospitals, taking the number of injuries to 111,780 in the Israeli onslaught.
“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” the ministry said.
WEST BANK
A Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli fire on Thursday as army forces raided the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank, in an expansion of its ongoing offensive in the occupied territory.
The Health Ministry said a 25-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the camp, while the official news agency Wafa said Israeli forces held his body.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that three people were also injured, including two by live fire.
The organization said two other Palestinians were injured by Israeli fire in Jenin city in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli army raided the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Thursday, in an expansion of its ongoing offensive in the occupied territory, witnesses said.
Armed clashes were reported in the camp near Nablus city as the army sent military reinforcement into the area, they said.
No information was yet available about injuries or arrests.
The Israeli army has been conducting military operations in the northern West Bank since last month, killing at least 63 people and displacing thousands.
The raids were the latest in Israel’s ongoing military escalation in the West Bank, where at least 926 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers since the start of the onslaught against the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
A young Palestinian man was killed and a 14-year-old boy was injured after Israeli soldiers opened fire in Nablus.
A doctor and a young woman have also been wounded by Israeli gunfire today in Jenin city and its camp, according to the Wafa news agency.
It cited the Palestinian Red Crescent Society as confirming that the doctor was shot in the leg in the al-Zahraa neighbourhood of Jenin, while the women was wounded in the refugee camp.
A Palestinian doctor and a girl were injured by Israeli occupation forces in the city of Jenin and its refugee camp.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that its crews dealt with two injuries from live bullets, one of which was a doctor who was injured in the foot in the Al-Zahraa neighborhood in Jenin, and the other was a 23-yaer-old girl in the Jenin refugee camp.
At least 27 people have been killed and dozens injured as a result of Israeli military attacks on Jenin after the Gaza ceasefire, which are now on their 38th day.
Several new Israeli raids have also been reported across the occupied West Bank, including an incursion by special forces into the city of Jericho that was accompanied with live fire. Israeli forces hit a neighbourhood in Silwan south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied East Jerusalem as well.
Israeli occupation forces Thursday evening shot and detained a young Palestinian man in Qusra town, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to WAFA correspondent.
He said that the occupying forces barged their way into the town and surrounded a house, at a time when sounds of gunfire could be heard from the direction of the house and additional military reinforcements were deployed in the town.
He added that the heavily armed soldiers opened gunfire at Ibrahim Hasan, who was besieged in the house and rounded him up.
There was no immediate information about the condition of his injury.
The Israeli occupation forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost daily across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.
A group of illegal Israeli settlers attacked on Thursday Palestinian local properties in the town of Beit Kahil, north of Hebron.
Nadi Muhammad Kayed al-Atawneh, a local resident, told WAFA that a group of extremist colonists attacked his home and property in the Shaab Mazou area in the Wadi al-Qaf area in the town of Beit Kahil, where they completely destroyed the contents of the house.
He pointed out that the colonists have intensified their attacks on citizens, their properties and homes in the area in the past weeks, in addition to uprooting olive trees and crops.
Dozens of armed settlers under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, organized a provocative march today that toured several neighborhoods of the Old City, reaching the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.
WAFA correspondent said that dozens of settlers, under the protection of the occupation forces, organized a provocative march that set off from Kiryat Arba colony, built on citizens’ lands east of the city of Hebron, towards the Ibrahimi Mosque, passing through Wadi al-Hussein, Jaber neighborhood and other neighborhoods of the Old City, during which the participants carried the Israeli flags and chanted racist slogans.
He pointed out that this march came amid strict military measures imposed by the occupation forces on the residents of those areas, as they closed the area and the checkpoints leading to the mosque completely, and prevented the movement of citizens.
LEBANON
The Lebanese army on Wednesday said its specialized units discovered Israeli spy devices in southern Lebanon.
The army said in a statement that its specialized teams, during engineering surveying operations in areas in southern Lebanon, identified two spy devices planted by the Israeli army.
The devices, hidden inside trees and rocks, were equipped with cameras and sensors.
The army also published photos of the surveillance equipment, and said the relevant units worked on dismantling them.
The Israeli army has yet to comment on the development.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place in Lebanon since Nov. 27, ending months of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah that escalated into a full-scale conflict last September.
“Earlier today [Thursday], activity inside an observation post belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation was identified in the area of Aainata in southern Lebanon,” the military claimed in a statement, adding that it “was struck by the IAF [air force]”.
The Israeli military calling the presence of the observation post “a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.
Israel has continued to launch deadly attacks on Lebanon despite the ceasefire with Hezbollah that came into effect in late November, often claiming that it is targeting arms smuggling.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says his country’s troops are “staying indefinitely” in a buffer zone on the border with Lebanon, adding their deployment there is “situation-dependent”.
“There is a buffer zone [on the border with Lebanon]. It wasn’t easy but I stood my ground, and we received a green light from the United States, we gave them a map, and we are staying indefinitely. This is situation-dependent, not time-dependent,” he said at a news conference, according to a statement issued by his office.
Two people were killed on Thursday in an Israeli airstrike targeting a small truck in the city of Hermel, northeastern Lebanon.
According to the Lebanese National News Agency, an Israeli drone struck a small pickup truck on the outskirts of Hermel, resulting in the killing of two individuals.
The attack marks another violation of the ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on November 27 last year.
Since the ceasefire began, more than 80 people have been killed and others injured, while Israel continues to delay the withdrawal of its forces from Lebanese territory.
[Photo: Relatives mourn Palestinian teenager who was killed by Israeli army in Balata refugee camp in Nablus, West Bank on February 27, 2025. Photojournalist: Nedal Eshtayah/AA]
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