Nine killed in two Israeli West Bank air strikes

Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in separate air strikes in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian press agency Wafa reported, while the Israeli military said it had "eliminated terrorist cells".

Five people were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Tulkarem area, Wafa reported, while the Israeli military said it struck "five terrorists" on their way to carry out an attack.

According to Wafa, the drone fired two missiles at a vehicle 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".

"The Israeli police are currently conducting a counterterrorism activity in the area of Tulkarem," the military said in a statement.

A witness at the scene of the strike told AFP: "I live less than 50 metres (yards) 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," said the witness named Nasser, who declined to have his last name published.

The Israeli military quickly sealed off the area, Wafa reported.

In a second air strike, hours later in the Tulkarem area, Wafa reported that four Palestinians were killed.

The military confirmed the aerial strike, saying "an additional terrorist cell was eliminated" as part of the ongoing counterterrorism activity there.

During the operation there was an encounter between troops and militants, after which Israeli soldiers called in an air strike, killing the four, the military said.

Alongside the Israel-Hamas war that began last October in the Gaza Strip, violence has intensified in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967.

At least 603 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.

At least 17 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed by Palestinian attacks in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.

Excluding east Jerusalem, some 490,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank alongside some three million Palestinians.