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Palestinians inspect the suspected Islamist's burned-out car after the air strike: the man was on his way to carry out an attack

Photo: Mohammad Mansour / AFP

The Israeli military has been carrying out massive air strikes against Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip for months.

In the West Bank, however, the army acts much more cautiously; soldiers usually go out on individual missions on the ground.

Now, however, the army has ordered a rare airstrike - and claims to have thwarted a terrorist attack in the city of Jenin.

As the army announced early Friday morning, a member of the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad was eliminated in the drone strike.

The man was on his way to carry out an attack.

He has been involved in several attacks on Israeli communities and military posts in recent months.

According to paramedics, at least one Israeli was killed and several people were injured, some seriously, in a terrorist attack near Jerusalem the day before.

Police said on Thursday that three attackers were shot at the crime scene on a highway near Jerusalem.

According to Israeli domestic intelligence, the perpetrators were three Palestinians from Bethlehem in the West Bank.

3,000 additional houses in the West Bank

Israel's right-wing extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich took the attack as an opportunity to push ahead with settlement construction in the West Bank.

As the Times of Israel newspaper reported, the committee responsible for approving the construction of settler houses will meet shortly for this purpose.

Smotrich wants more than 3,000 additional houses to be built in the West Bank, it said.

Since the beginning of the Gaza War following the terrorist attack by Hamas and other extremist groups in southern Israel on October 7, tensions and conflicts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have also increased.

Palestinians complain about increased violence by Israeli settlers against their villages and olive groves.

The Israeli military is increasingly taking action against suspected militants in Palestinian cities.

Israel's military regularly carries out raids, especially in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, which are administered by the Palestinian Authority and are considered strongholds of terrorist groups.

The United States and other countries have imposed sanctions on Jewish settlers accused of engaging in violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Israel to better protect the Palestinians in the West Bank from attacks by Israeli settlers.

mrc/dpa