Israel strike kills one, wounds eight in West Bank's Jenin camp

A Palestinian militant was killed and eight other people wounded on Friday in an Israeli airstrike on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and Israeli military said.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group named the killed man as member Islam Khamayseh.

The Palestinian health ministry said the eight wounded people were in stable condition and receiving treatment at hospitals. Reuters could not immediately confirm their identities.

The Israeli military said a fighter jet and helicopter conducted the strike, a rarity in the West Bank, where Israeli forces and settlers have killed hundreds of Palestinians since the Gaza war began in October.

Israel alleged that it struck a compound used as an operations centre by militants and confirmed the killing of Khamayseh, who it said was responsible for several attacks against Israelis.

The strike "was carried out to remove an imminent threat", it added, without disclosing details on the alleged threat.

Images circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a cloud of smoke over the refugee camp, which has over the years become a densely populated urban area.

Residents of the camp said a house was targeted.

According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, some 23,600 residents of the camp were registered as refugees – people who were ethnically cleansed alongside the 1948 creation of the Israeli state, or their descendants.

Israel has illegally occupied the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967.

Some Palestinian groups like the PIJ have engaged in armed struggle to confront Israel's decades-long military occupation.

(Reuters)