Israeli Forces Kill 16 People In Gaza And The West Bank, Medics Say

CAIRO/RAMALLAH, March 15 (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed 16 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, health officials said, as Israel continued its attacks on Lebanon and Iran. This was one of the heaviest deaths in a single day in weeks.

Hamas-run Gaza’s medics and interior ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed a senior police official and eight other officers when their vehicle crashed into the entrance of the town of Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip. The Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 14 people were injured, most of them bystanders.

Early Sunday, health officials said three people – a man, his pregnant wife and their son – were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the western district of Nuseyrat in the central Gaza Strip.

No statement was made from Israel regarding the events in Gaza.

Palestinian health officials said that a Palestinian father, mother and their two children were killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank while they were heading towards the occupied West Bank, and the Israeli army said that the incident was under investigation.

There has been regular violence in Gaza since a ceasefire came into force in October, following two years of devastating war triggered by Hamas-led attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.

While Israeli attacks in Gaza tapered off in the days after the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran on Feb. 28, they have since begun to increase again, according to residents, medics and analysts. Gaza health officials say at least 36 Palestinians have died from Israeli fire since the start of the Iran war.

The region’s health ministry says at least 670 people have died from Israeli fire since the October ceasefire. Israel said four soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza during the same period.

In the West Bank village of Tammun, Palestinian health officials said 37-year-old Ali Khalid Bani Odeh, his 35-year-old wife Waad and their two sons, aged five and seven, died after being shot in the head, and their other two children were injured.

The Israeli army said in a statement that its forces carried out an operation in the village of Tammun to arrest Palestinians wanted for participating in “terrorist” activities against security forces.

The army said, “During the operation, a vehicle accelerated and responded by firing at the forces that perceived a threat to their security. As a result, 4 Palestinians in the vehicle were killed.”

It was stated that the circumstances of the incident were reviewed.

One of the two surviving children, 12-year-old Khalid, told Reuters in hospital that he heard his mother crying and his father praying before gunshots rang out into the car.

The child said, “We came under direct fire, we did not know the source. Everyone in the vehicle, except my brother Mustafa and me, was martyred.”

He said the soldiers pulled him out of the vehicle before beating him and shouting: “We killed the dogs.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that a Palestinian was killed in the attack carried out by Israeli settlers throughout the night.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank use Movement restrictions imposed during the US-Israel conflict war against Iran Human rights groups and medics say military roadblocks planned to attack Palestinians by preventing ambulances from quickly reaching victims.

Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war with Iran on February 28, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Emily Rose and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by William Mallard, Gareth Jones and Aidan Lewis)