Violence has escalated in the occupied territory over the last year and a half, as Israel conducts raids targeting armed fighters with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
An Israeli drone strike killed three cousins, including two children, in the West Bank on Wednesday, according to Palestinian officials and a family member, as growing violence threatens to further destabilize the Israeli-occupied territory.
The attack struck the courtyard of the cousins’ home in the town of Tamoun, said Ahmed Asad, the Palestinian governor of the Tubas region. He identified the dead as two young children, Rida Basharat and Hamza Basharat; and Adham Basharat, a young man.
Israeli soldiers seized the three shortly after the airstrike, leaving it unclear whether they were alive or dead, said Mr. Asad. Israeli officials later informed their Palestinian counterparts that the three had been killed, he added.
The Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs branch, which handles coordination with Israel, announced on Wednesday evening that Israeli officials had handed over the bodies of the three cousins for funeral rites.
The Israeli military said it had launched a drone strike in Tamoun against a “terrorist cell,” but did not immediately comment on the claim that two children had been killed. It later released a statement saying that “due to various reports regarding the results of the strike, the incident is under review.”
The cousins’ immediate families could not immediately be reached, but Mamun Abu Muhsin, a member of their extended family, confirmed their deaths in a phone interview on Wednesday night after he said their bodies had been returned by Israeli forces.