TUBAS CITY, Palestine

The Israeli army on early Wednesday killed five Palestinians in an airstrike in the city of Tubas, the occupied northern West Bank, as the army started an incursion into the city.

In a statement, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that after the airstrike, its medical teams transferred five bodies from the Tawheed Mosque in Tubas to the hospital.

Witnesses told Anadolu that a large number of Israeli forces stormed Tubas and nearby Tammun town, and imposed a curfew.

Explosions and gunfire were heard across the city, the witnesses added.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army also started a military operation in Tulkarem city and its refugee camp, killing two Palestinians.

The military raids came amid rising tensions in the occupied territory as Israel pressed ahead with its brutal onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

Nearly 700 people have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19 that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara