Four Palestinian youths matyred in Israeli drone strike in West Bank

At least four young Palestinian men were martyred when the Israeli military carried out a drone strike during a raid in Jenin, as the regime is tightening its grip on the West Bank amid the onslaught in Gaza.

Director of Jenin Government Hospital Wissam Bakr told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA that a group of Palestinians were directly targeted with an unmanned aerial vehicle in the attack on the al-Sibat neighborhood of Jenin city on Tuesday morning.

Bakr said one other person was injured in the aerial assault.

Palestinian medical sources identified the slain Palestinians as Rafiq al-Dabbous, Mahmoud Abu Srour, Bakr Siddiq Zakarneh, and Thaer Abu al-Tin.

Bakr added that Israeli military aircraft dropped toxic smoke bombs in Jenin's hospital yard, as the regime’s forces prevented the transfer of Abu al-Tin to the medical facility.

Palestinian ambulance crews, subsequently, shifted him to a health center in the city of Qabatiya, located six kilometers (3.7 miles) south of Jenin.

Israeli forces “continue to storm Jenin camp and ambulance crews are prevented from entering to deal with medical cases without prior coordination,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement.

Israeli forces are encircling three hospitals in the area, WAFA added.

Local sources said Zakarneh’s father suffered a stroke when he heard the news about his son’s death. His other son, Sidqi, was fatally shot by Israeli forces back on December 8 last year.

Director of the Jenin Education Department, Salam al-Taher, announced that schools in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp will hold their classes online.

Local sources noted that Israeli forces are still preventing members of the press from reaching out to the areas where raids are underway, and stop them from covering what is happening there.

Before this attack, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 275 people had been martyred in the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of the Israeli onslaught against Gaza.

SS