An Israeli drone strike killed three cousins, including two children, in the West Bank on Wednesday, according to Palestinian officials and a family member, as growing violence threatens to further destabilize the Israeli-occupied territory.
The attack hit the courtyard of the cousins’ house in the town of Tamoun, said Ahmed Asad, Palestinian governor of the Tubas region. He identified the dead as two young children, Rida Basharat and Hamza Basharat; and Adham Basharat, a junior.
Israeli soldiers seized the three shortly after the airstrike, leaving it unclear whether they were alive or dead, Asad said. Israeli officials later informed their Palestinian counterparts that the three had been killed, he added.
The Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs section, which handles coordination with Israel, announced Wednesday evening that Israeli officials had handed over the bodies of the three cousins for funeral rites.
The Israeli military said it had launched a drone strike in Tamoun against a “terrorist cell”, but did not immediately comment on claims that two children had been killed. It later released a statement saying that “due to various reports regarding the results of the strike, the incident is under review.”
The cousins’ families could not immediately be reached, but Mamun Abu Muhsin, a member of their extended family, confirmed their deaths in a telephone interview Wednesday evening after saying their bodies had been returned by Israeli forces.
Violence in the West Bank has soared over the past year and a half, as Israel has fought wars with armed groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli forces have stepped up raids on Palestinian cities in the West Bank – operations that can last days – demolishing roads and engaging in shootouts with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
Wednesday’s airstrike came in the wake of a Palestinian attack two days earlier that killed three Israelis, including two women in their 70s. Israeli officials quickly promised retribution for the deadly attack.
“We are seeing accelerated attempts to advance Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria,” Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, said Wednesday, using biblical names for the West Bank, which the Israeli government considers disputed, unoccupied territory. He said Israel will “respond accordingly” to protect its citizens, some 500,000 of whom live in West Bank settlements.
According to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health, since October 2023, more than 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, following the Hamas-led attack that sparked the war in Gaza. It is unclear how many fighters there were, but the numbers include some civilians, including women and children killed by Israeli security forces.
According to the United Nations, around the same time, around 50 Israelis were killed by Palestinians in militant attacks in the West Bank. The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, said it had thwarted more than a thousand attacks in 2024, including hundreds of gun attacks.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the territory under Israeli occupation, also launched its own operation against Palestinian militants in Jenin in December. Several Palestinian officers were killed, as were some civilians, including a young woman and a teenage bystander.