(Reuters) -Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the occupied West Bank on Monday in the Nur Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a militant operations centre in the camp, and that troops were separately blocking routes and conducting searches in the West Bank following reports of an abduction.
In another violent incident, one Palestinian was critically injured after he was shot by Israeli settlers who raided the Wadi Rahal area near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Clashes in the occupied West Bank have risen sharply since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last year as Israeli forces have stepped up operations against armed militant groups, including Iranian-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested and at least 637 killed, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures. Many of them are armed fighters but others stone-throwing youths or uninvolved civilians.
At least 30 Israelis – civilians and soldiers – have been killed by Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank in the same period, official Israeli figures showed.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta. Additional reporting by Maytaal Angel and Steve Scheer; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates)
