Israeli forces killed two Palestinian teenagers in the occupied West Bank late on Thursday, amid growing displacement of Palestinians across the territory, triggered by Israel’s devastating offensive on Gaza.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs, Israeli forces raided the town of Osarin- located southeast of the West Bank city of Nablus, which resulted in the deaths of two Palestinian teenagers.
Wafa identified the victims as 17-year-old Jihad Adham Edeili and 19-year-old Saif Ghassan Edeili.
The agency added that the pair were fatally shot as Israeli troops fired a large volume of live ammunition.
Israeli forces later withheld the bodies of the deceased.
Meanwhile, Amid Ahmad, Director of the Emergency and Ambulance Centre of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Nablus, said that a 20-year-old Palestinian was also shot in the knee and received on-site treatment from emergency responders.
In a statement, the Israeli military claimed its troops had opened fire on three Palestinians who were "hurling rocks towards vehicles on the highway" in the occupied West Bank.
This follows the Israeli military’s announcement of the killing of two other young Palestinian men in the occupied territory a day earlier, including the targeting of a Palestinian accused of carrying out a deadly attack on Israelis in January.
Israeli forces said they attempted to arrest 23-year-old Muhammad Zakarneh in a cave near the West Bank town of Qabatiyah.
Zakarneh and 19-year-old Marouh Khuzaymia were killed by the army, who claimed "was released during the November 2023 hostage deal," adding that the pair were reportedly members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.
The Israeli military has accused Zakarneh of being one of three individuals allegedly involved in a deadly shooting on 6 January near the village of Al-Funduq, which left three Israelis dead and six others wounded.
These recent killings follow a sharp increase in Israeli raids across the West Bank since the onset of the Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 51,065 Palestinians.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 921 Palestinians in the West Bank.
Around 40,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes during January and February, in what has become the most significant wave of forced displacement in the West Bank since Israel seized the territory during the 1967 war.
The Israeli offensive has devastated several urban refugee camps in the northern West Bank- such as Tulkarem and the adjacent Nur Shams camp- which had long sheltered descendants of Palestinians uprooted during earlier conflicts.