Israeli Airstrike in Jenin Kills Three Palestinians
Al Jazeera Staff
A rare Israeli airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin killed three Palestinians on Friday, including a senior Islamic Jihad commander, amid escalating tensions. The attack drew condemnation from Palestinian factions and raised concerns of further violence in the region.
Israel's military conducted a rare airstrike in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, killing three Palestinians amid rising tensions in the region.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it "neutralized" three people on Friday, including a Palestinian described as a Hamas gunman and two accomplices. The military said the airstrike targeted a car carrying the targets.
Hamas condemned the attack but did not confirm that the targeted person, identified by the Israeli military as Qais Bitawi, was a member of the group. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement said Bitawi was a senior commander of its armed wing.
The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said Israeli ground troops raided the scene of the drone strike, detained medical staff, and prevented them from taking the wounded or dead to hospital. The Red Crescent also said its personnel were detained after arriving at the scene.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the airstrike targeted an under-construction house in the western part of Jenin city, killing three Palestinians instantly. Photos from AFP showed Israeli soldiers removing bodies from an under-construction house on the outskirts of Jenin.
'Stop These Crimes and End Impunity'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the airstrike on social media platform X, calling it a "successful elimination" of the three targeted individuals. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also congratulated the military, police, and Shin Bet security agency for the attack, saying that the Jenin camp had been "evacuated of residents" and that Israeli forces were now "permanently stationed there, like in other terrorist camps" in the West Bank.
Hamas condemned the attack in a statement mourning "the martyrs who fell in the bombing of the occupation forces in Jenin," while asserting that Palestinians "will continue to cling to their land and rights." The group called on the international community to "act immediately to stop these crimes and end impunity" and to hold Israel "fully responsible for the consequences."
The occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is based, has seen a surge in violence from Israeli settlers and soldiers, but has recently avoided the Israeli military offensives that have devastated the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, 2023. Military raids into Palestinian towns in the West Bank are common, but Israel last conducted an airstrike there in February 2025.
Friday's airstrike in Jenin came as separate Israeli attacks in Gaza killed at least five people, and as Nikolay Mladenov, a senior envoy for the U.S.-led Peace Council, warned that both sides' failure to adhere to the peace roadmap "threatens the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire."
