Israel kills five Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli soldiers on Monday killed five gunmen associated with the Hamas terrorist group during a raid in a refugee camp near the city of Jericho. The latest violence comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israeli and Palestinian officials last week to urge both sides to calm tensions. Israel said the raid was meant to apprehend militants responsible for a Jan. 28 attack on a restaurant in the West Bank that failed because of a weapon malfunction.

What do the Palestinians have to say? Hamas has confirmed that the dead are members of its armed wing, and it has promised vengeance for their deaths. The Palestinian president’s office condemned the attack as a crime and pleaded for the United States to restrain Israel, which continues to pursue suspected terrorists in the West Bank camps.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report from the WORLD archives about violence in Gaza and the West Bank that many feared would push Israel and Hamas into all-out war in 2021.