Shawdesh desk; Israeli forces killed at least four Palestinians during a dawn raid in the north of the occupied West Bank, health officials said Friday, with Hamas members among the dead.

“Four killed by occupation (Israeli) bullets in Jenin and Qalqilya at dawn today,” the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said in a statement, reports AFP.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa said at least three Palestinians were killed in “violent clashes” in the city of Jenin during an incursion by “a large contingent” of Israeli forces.

A dozen others were also injured during the skirmishes, the agency reported.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas announced in a separate statement that one of its fighters was killed during the raid in Jenin.

The group also said another member was also killed during an Israeli incursion into the town of Qalqilya, south of Jenin.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incidents.

Violence has risen sharply in the West Bank in the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Since then, more than 100 people have been killed and more than 1,900 injured in the West Bank, according to health officials there, mostly in raids by Israeli troops or in clashes with Israeli settlers.

On October 7, throngs of Hamas gunmen poured from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 224 more, according to Israeli officials.

In retaliatory Israeli air and artillery strikes, at least 7,028 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, including 2,913 children, according to figures released by the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.

The fatalities in Gaza are the highest there since Israel withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005.