Four Palestinians killed in rare Israeli drone strike on Jenin

Four Palestinians were killed in a rare Israeli drone strike on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

The drone strike on the city also wounded another person, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

A correspondent for Al Jazeera TV said the drone had targeted the old city and Al-Sibat neighbourhood in central Jenin, noting that Israeli snipers had been deployed to rooftops.

Airstrikes are relatively rare in the occupied West Bank with Jenin refugee camp bombed by warplanes in October for the first time since the 2000s.

In June, three Palestinians were killed in a suspected helicopter or drone strike on their vehicle near Jenin.

Meanwhile, a photojournalist was injured after Israeli forces fired tear gas at reporters on Tuesday morning in the city.

Reuters photographer Rania Sawafteh was wounded in the attack, which targeted a group of journalists who were wearing a press vest while covering the latest raid into the city.

She was transported by an ambulance to receive medical treatment, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed's correspondent in the West Bank.

Tuesday's attack on journalists was not the first by Israeli forces, who have been accused of deliberately targeting reporters.

A recent investigation by Human Rights Watch, as well as Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP), found that two Israeli strikes on 13 October in Lebanon, which killed Reuters photographer Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists were "deliberate attacks on civilians" and amounted to a war crime.

The investigation found that the journalists were removed from the nearby hostilities at the Lebanon-Israel border and were clearly identifiable as members of the media when they were targeted.

Israel's attacks on Gaza and southern Lebanon have killed at least 75 journalists and wounded at least 80 others, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.

Two Palestinian journalists were missing, the homes of 60 journalists' families were targeted, 63 media institutions were destroyed, and the operations of 25 local radio stations (24 in Gaza and one in the West Bank) were disrupted.

Among those arrested is journalist Diaa Al-Kahlout, a correspondent for The New Arab's Arabic language service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. He was taken from his home at gunpoint on 7 December. 

Targeting journalists deliberately is a war crime, as they are considered civilians not party to a conflict.