The Palestinian Authority announced Tuesday morning, May 21, that seven people had been killed by Israeli fire in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank, where the Israeli army announced it was carrying out a raid.

“Seven dead and nine injured by occupation bullets in Jenin, including two injured in serious condition,” reads a short message from the Palestinian Health Ministry, published on Telegram, as an “update”. on the situation at 9:30 a.m. local time (8:30 a.m. PST).

The Israeli army had claimed earlier without further details on its Telegram account that Israeli forces had “begun an anti-terrorist operation in Jenin by attacking armed men in the area”.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA identified one of the dead as Oussaïd Jabarine, a surgeon at the city’s government hospital. Among the dead also include a teacher and a minor, schoolboy or college student, according to information from the agency. Due to the ongoing Israeli military raid, all schools in the city and the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp have been evacuated, according to WAFA.

At least 512 Palestinians killed in West Bank since war began

Jenin is a stronghold of armed groups fighting against Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The Israeli army regularly carries out military operations there which it describes as “anti-terrorist” and intended, according to it, to prevent attacks in Israel or attacks on Israelis in the West Bank.

The West Bank has been the scene of an outbreak of violence for two years, further exacerbated by the ongoing war in Gaza since the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7. At least 512 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Since that same date, at least twelve Israelis have been killed in the West Bank (apart from East Jerusalem, part of this territory annexed by Israel in 1967) in Palestinian attacks or attacks, according to official Israeli data.