RAMALLAH, Palestine 

At least two Palestinians were killed on Friday by Israeli army gunfire in the city of Qalqilya in the northern occupied West Bank.

“Two Palestinians were killed after the car they were in was targeted by agents of the elite Israeli police undercover unit, Gideonim, in the northwestern West Bank town of Qalqilya,” the daily Haaretz quoted the Israeli army.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses told Anadolu that an Israeli special force opened fire on a Palestinian vehicle, injuring its occupants in the center of Qalqilya.

Israeli military reinforcements stormed the city, witnesses added.

The Palestinian News Agency Wafa reported that "an Israeli special force, accompanied by Israeli occupation soldiers, fired live bullets at a vehicle traveling along the main street in the city center, wounding its occupants."

The agency reported that the Israeli force prevented ambulance crews and citizens from reaching the injured Palestinians, without providing further details.

The Israeli military has been regularly conducting raids in the occupied West Bank over the past few years, which escalated with the start of the war on Gaza last October. Palestinians have also faced violent attacks from illegal settlers.

At least 550 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,200 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel stands accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi.