Three cousins, including two children, were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the West Bank on Wednesday, according to Palestinian officials and their families.
Ahmed Assad, governor of Palestine’s Tubas region, said the attack hit the courtyard of his cousins’ home in the village of Tamun. He identified the dead as two young children, Rida Basharat and Hamza Basharat. and young man Adham Basharat.
Israeli forces captured three people shortly after the strike, and it was unclear whether they were alive or dead, Assad said. Israeli officials later informed the Palestinians that three people had been killed, he added.
The Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs Directorate, which is responsible for coordination with Israel, announced Wednesday evening that Israeli officials had handed over the bodies of the three cousins for funerals.
The Israeli military said it had launched a drone strike against a “terrorist group” in Tamun, but did not immediately comment on claims that two children were killed. They later released a statement saying, “Due to various reports regarding the outcome of the strike, we are reviewing the incident.”
The cousins’ immediate family could not immediately be reached, but their relative, Mamoun Abu Muhsin, confirmed their deaths in a phone interview Wednesday night after saying their bodies had been returned by Israeli forces.
Violence has surged in the West Bank over the past year and a half as Israel wages war against militant groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli forces have expanded airstrikes on Palestinian cities in the West Bank, bulldozing roads and engaging in gunfights with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in operations that can last for days at a time.
Wednesday’s airstrikes followed a shooting in Palestine two days earlier that left three Israelis dead, including two women in their 70s. Israeli officials vowed immediate retaliation for the deadly attack.
“We are witnessing an acceleration of attempts to advance Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday, using the Biblical name for the West Bank, which the Israeli government considers a disputed territory rather than occupied territory. . He said Israel would “respond appropriately” to protect the estimated 500,000 citizens living in West Bank settlements.
More than 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since October 2023 in Hamas-led attacks that triggered the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry. It is unclear how many fighters there were, but that number also includes some civilians, including women and children, who were killed by Israeli security forces.
According to the United Nations, about 50 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank during the same period. Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, said it had thwarted more than 1,000 attacks in 2024, including hundreds of shooting attacks.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of Israel-occupied territory, also began its own operation against Palestinian militants in Jenin in December last year. Several Palestinian officers were killed, as were some civilians, including a young woman and a teenage bystander.
