By Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi
NUR SHAMS, West Bank (Reuters) – A Palestinian ambulance driver was killed on Saturday while evacuating the wounded during a raid by violent Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities said.
The incident occurred as violence erupted across the area and fighting continued in Gaza.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the 50-year-old driver was killed by Israeli gunfire near the village of Al-Sawiya, south of the city of Nablus, as he was on his way to transport people wounded in the attack on village.
It was not immediately clear whether the settlers shot him. There was no immediate comment from the military.
Previously, health authorities said that at least two Palestinians, identified by Palestinian sources and officials as a gunman and a 16-year-old boy, had been killed during a raid by Israeli forces in the Nur Shams area, near the Palestinian town of Tulkarem.
Several militants were killed and others arrested, the Israeli army said, and at least four soldiers were wounded in the firefights.
The Tulkarem Brigades group, which includes militants from several Palestinian factions, said its fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces on Saturday.
At least three drones were seen circling over Nur Shams, where Israeli military vehicles were massed and explosions of gunfire were heard.
In Gaza, Israeli attacks hit the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are taking refuge, as well as Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza, where at least five homes were destroyed, and the Al-Jabalia area in the north, according to health sources. and the Hamas media said.
The Israeli army said troops were carrying out raids in central Gaza, where they were engaged in close combat with Palestinian fighters.
Overall, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 37 Palestinians and wounded 68 in the past 24 hours, Palestinian health authorities said.
Fighting has continued in Gaza despite the withdrawal of most Israeli fighting forces earlier this month from southern areas.
Rafah is the last area of Gaza where Israeli ground forces have not entered a more than six-month war aimed at eliminating the Islamist Hamas group that rules the enclave, following Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced widespread international opposition to the plan to attack Rafah, where the army says the last remaining organized Hamas brigades are located and where the remaining 133 Israeli hostages are believed to be held.
The Gaza war has overshadowed ongoing violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, including regular army raids against militant groups, rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages and street attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths of two people on Friday in Nur Shams, an area that hosts refugees from the 1948 war and their descendants. One of the victims was identified by Palestinian sources as an armed man. The second was a 16-year-old schoolboy, according to Palestinian officials.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the United States for effectively blocking the United Nations from recognizing a Palestinian state by vetoing it this week in the Security Council.
In an interview with the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, Abbas said the Palestinian Authority would reconsider bilateral relations with the United States.
The West Bank and Gaza are among the territories the Palestinians seek for an independent state. US-brokered peace talks broke down a decade ago.