Israel Police Says Forces Kill Five Palestinian Fighters in West Bank

 Palestinian people inspect the car that was hit by bullets in which Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli special forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP)
Palestinian people inspect the car that was hit by bullets in which Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli special forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP)
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Israel Police Says Forces Kill Five Palestinian Fighters in West Bank

 Palestinian people inspect the car that was hit by bullets in which Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli special forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP)
Palestinian people inspect the car that was hit by bullets in which Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli special forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP)

Israeli forces killed five armed Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Israeli police said.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials or armed groups. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the deaths of only four men.

The Palestinian official news agency WAFA said that Israeli special forces had opened fire on a vehicle that the men were travelling in, in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Violence has surged across the West Bank since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians - including armed fighters, stone-throwing youths and civilian bystanders - have been killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.

Dozens of Israelis have been killed in Palestinian street attacks over the past year. At least six people were wounded, two of them seriously, in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Hadera on Wednesday, Israeli authorities said.



Blinken again Says Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Deal is ‘Very Close’

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaks to the media on the sidelines of a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo, Japan, 07 January 2025. EPA/TAKASHI AOYAMA/POOL
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaks to the media on the sidelines of a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo, Japan, 07 January 2025. EPA/TAKASHI AOYAMA/POOL
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Blinken again Says Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Deal is ‘Very Close’

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaks to the media on the sidelines of a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo, Japan, 07 January 2025. EPA/TAKASHI AOYAMA/POOL
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaks to the media on the sidelines of a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo, Japan, 07 January 2025. EPA/TAKASHI AOYAMA/POOL

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is again saying that a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas is “very close” and he hopes “we can get it over the line” before handing over US diplomacy to the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
“In area after area, we’re handing off, in some cases, things that we haven’t been able to complete but that create real opportunities to move things forward in a better way,” he said Wednesday on a stop in Paris for meetings.
Blinken said that even if the Biden administration's plans for a ceasefire and hostage deal don’t come to fruition before Trump’s inauguration, he thinks they’ll be put into practice afterward.
“I believe that when we get that deal – and we’ll get that deal – it will be on the basis of the plans that President Biden put before the world,” he said.
Israel’s military says troops have recovered the body of an additional hostage from Gaza. The body of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza, 53-year-old Yosef AlZayadni, was recovered in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza, the military said Wednesday. It said it was examining whether a second body was that of another hostage.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier a second hostage's body had been recovered: AlZayadni’s son Hamzah.
The men were taken captive during Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. The return of the body comes as Israel and Hamas are considering a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Israel believes a third of the remaining 100 hostages are dead. However, AlZayadni was believed to still be alive before Wednesday’s announcement.
AlZayadni, who had 19 children, had worked at a dairy in southern Israel’s Kibbutz Holit for 17 years, said the Hostages Family Forum, a group representing the families of captives. AlZayadni was kidnapped with three of his children. His teenage kids, Bilal and Aisha, were released in a weeklong ceasefire deal in November.
The family are members of the Bedouin community, part of Israel’s Palestinian minority who have Israeli citizenship.