Israeli sources say at least 12 of the 18 people killed in an airstrike in the West Bank are Palestinian extremists.
Ten of them belonged to Hamas and two to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Israeli army said on Saturday. Initially, the military had reported that at least seven extremists had been killed.
Hamas claimed that eight of the murdered men were members of their group. The PIJ has appointed one person as a member. The armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party in the West Bank also said one man was their member.
The victims included civilians, including two children aged 7 and 8 years old.
Eighteen people were killed in the attack on a residential building with a cafe on the ground floor in Tulkarem on Thursday evening, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry in Berlin described the high number of civilian casualties as “shocking” and said the Israeli army has an obligation to protect civilians in the West Bank in the fight against terrorism.
Israeli military sources stated that all the killed militants were involved in the production of explosives. They said the militants also supported “terrorist activities against Israeli civilians.”
The army had already announced that the head of Hamas in Tulkarem was also killed in the attack.
