Israeli forces kill four Palestinians as large-scale West Bank assault continues

Israeli forces have killed at least eight Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amid a large-scale assault on that area which began in late August.

A drone strike on a vehicle in the Haj Masoud area east of Tulkarm killed three men on Wednesday evening, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The men were named as Imad al-Din Khader Masoud Shahada and Mohammad Nasser from Nur Shams camp, and Salah al-Din Ammar Badu from the Shuwaika suburb.

Their charred remains were transferred to the city's hospital in pieces.

In a separate incident on Thursday morning, 46-year-old Sufyan Jawad Fayez was killed in the Far'a refugee camp when an Israeli sniper shot him through the heart, Wafa reported.

The latest killings come amid Israel's largest incursion on the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, with an increase in raids and arrests coinciding with Israel's latest war on Gaza launched in October.

In Tulkarm, Popular Committee for Tulkarm Camp Services head Faisal Salama told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Israeli forces had destroyed and burned more than 20 homes in the past 24 hours.

In Tubas, local Fatah movement secretary Mahmoud Sawafta told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Israeli forces have continued the storming of the town of Tamoun for a second consecutive day. Sawafta said Israeli forces had bulldozed infrastructure, while carrying out continuous raids in the area surrounding the Tubas Turkish Governmental Hospital.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Thursday that at least 703 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October, including 159 children.

The ministry added that at least 5,700 people have been wounded in the same period.