Hundreds of mourners attended funerals Friday in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas for five men killed in an Israeli strike Wednesday, while Spain hosted high-level meetings in Madrid focusing on the creation of a Palestinian state.
Mourners marched through the streets of Tubas on Friday bearing the bodies of four of the dead on stretchers. Some could be seen carrying green Hamas flags. The fifth man killed was buried Friday in Tamoun, also in the northern West Bank.
In a statement, the Israeli military said Wednesday Israeli aircraft had "struck and eliminated a terrorist cell consisting of five terrorists armed with explosives who posed a threat” to Israeli forces.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank confirmed the death toll but did not elaborate as to whether those killed by Israeli fire were militants or civilians.
Israeli forces have conducted a series of operations in the northern West Bank for the past two weeks, with extended raids in Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarm. All three cities have a heavy presence of armed factions, including Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad and Fatah.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, reported Friday that Israeli bombardment from the air and land continued to be reported across the Gaza Strip this week, resulting in civilian casualties, displacement and destruction of houses and other civilian infrastructure.
The agency, in a statement, said ground operations — particularly in Beit Hanoun, the southwestern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, and in Rafah to the south — continue to report heavy fighting, alongside Palestinian rocket fire at Israel.
Meanwhile, in Madrid on Friday, the Spanish government hosted a meeting of European and Muslim nations to discuss the situation in Gaza and the creation of a Palestinian state.
In opening remarks, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said, “The only way to ensure a fair and lasting peace in the region [is] through the peaceful and secure coexistence of the State of Palestine and the State of Israel.”
Albares, along with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, hosted the meeting comprising members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell attended the meeting, along with foreign ministers from Norway and Slovenia, and Ireland’s U.N. policy director.
Israel was not represented at the meeting, Albares said, because it is not part of the contact group. But he said they “would be delighted” to include Israel to any gathering “where peace and the implementation of two states are discussed.”
He said he hoped that is what they will see “around the table one day ... Israel, speaking of peace and the implementation of two states."
The U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA, said Friday in a statement that an agency sanitation worker, Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, was shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper at the Al-Far’a camp, in the northern West Bank, during an overnight Israeli military operation early Thursday.
The statement said it marks the first time an UNRWA staff member has been killed in the West Bank in more than 10 years.
UNRWA also reported Friday that the first round of the U.N. polio vaccination campaign in Gaza ended Thursday with the team successfully reaching 90% vaccination coverage.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported 560,000 children below 10 years of age were vaccinated.
Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages in their October 7 terror attack on Israel that sparked the current war. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 101 hostages, including 35 the military says are dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Hamas has been designated a terror group by the U.S., the U.K., EU and other Western countries.
Nearly three-quarters of Gaza's 2.3 million population is displaced, and nearly the entire population is at risk of famine, according to the United Nations.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
