Israeli Soldiers Kill 5 Palestinian gunmen in West Bank: Military

Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinian militants in exchanges of fire in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday (January 2), the military said. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

A statement from the military said that soldiers on a counter-terrorism operation killed four armed militants who had fired at them from within a house in the Palestinian village Azzun and one Israeli soldier was wounded in the fire exchange.

In Qalqilya, soldiers shot and killed a gunman who opened fire at them while they were on a raid to seize weapons, the military said.

Israeli security forces have stepped up raids across the West Bank since the Oct 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel and the subsequent Israeli offensive now raging in the Gaza Strip.