Israeli Forces Kill Four Palestinians in West Bank Raid

An Israeli air strike and gunfire have killed four Palestinians at the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said in an updated toll.

Israeli forces withdrew from Nur Shams in the morning, hours after the military announced around midnight it had launched a "counter-terrorism" operation.

Ambulance teams have just transported an 18-year-old man who was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Nur Shams camp, bringing the death toll in the raid to four people.

Two were killed by an air strike and two by live bullets, the Red Crescent said.

The Israeli army said "an aircraft struck two militants who posed an immediate threat to the forces", and troops "eliminated two" militants in an exchange of fire during the operation.

According to a military statement, the troops who shot dead Abu Abeid and another presumed militant "found an M-4 rifle" on one of them, without elaborating.

Israeli forces regularly carry out incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank but until several months ago had rarely struck the territory -- occupied since 1967 -- from the air.

The Nur Shams raid came amid intensifying violence in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, triggered by the Gaza militant group's October 7 attack.

Including the latest deaths, at least eight Palestinians were killed in less than 24 hours in the West Bank, authorities and medics said.

Three Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, were killed in an Israeli strike on a car in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed factions in the northern West Bank.

One Palestinian was killed by gunfire in the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah.

At least 444 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.