Five killed in Israeli West Bank air strike

TULKAREM, Palestinian Territories — An Israeli drone strike killed five people in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian press agency Wafa reported, while the Israeli military said it struck "five terrorists" on their way to carry out an attack.

According to Wafa, an Israeli military drone targeted a vehicle "with two missiles" which caught fire, killing five men.

The director of the Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem said in a statement that "five martyrs" had arrived at the facility after "an Israeli drone strike on a Palestinian vehicle close to the village of Zeita in Tulkarem".

At the scene of the strike a witness told AFP, "I live less than 50 metres from here. We came [after] the sound of an explosion and saw a vehicle on fire" on the road towards Zeita, to the north of Tulkarem.

"Next to it, we saw a body lying on the road. Inside the vehicle, there were three charred bodies, from what we were able to see, completely burnt," added Nasser, who declined to have his last name published. 

Alongside the Israel-Hamas war that began last October in the Gaza Strip, violence has intensified in the West Bank.

At least 599 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures. 

Meanwhile, the European Union's representative office in the Palestinian territories said on Friday that Israel advanced last year the highest number of settlements in the occupied West Bank since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, 

Plans for 12,349 housing units moved towards approval in the West Bank, the EU office said, warning of the impact on a potential two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Another 18,333 units moved forward in the planning process in annexed east Jerusalem, the EU office said.

The total -- 30,682 settler units in both the West Bank and east Jerusalem -- is the highest since 2012, it added.

The report comes at a time of heightened tensions in the West Bank and east Jerusalem over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which has been raging since October 7.

"The EU has repeatedly called on Israel not to proceed with plans under its settlement policy and to halt all settlement activities," the EU office said.

"It remains the EU's firm position that settlements are illegal under international law.

"Israel's decision to advance plans for the approval and construction of new settlement units in 2023 further undermines the prospects of a viable two-state solution."

All of Israel's settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless of whether they have Israeli planning permission.

Dozens of unauthorised settlements have sprung up in the territories -- ranging from a few tents grouped together to prefabricated huts that have been linked to public electricity and water supplies.

Excluding east Jerusalem, some 490,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank alongside some three million Palestinians. Far-right parties in Israel's governing coalition have pressed for an acceleration of settlement expansion.

Since the start of the Gaza war, violence between Palestinians and Israeli troops and settlers has intensified.