Two children were among three Palestinians from the same extended family killed in an Israeli drone strike in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian officials say.
The governor of Tubas said the strike in the town of Tammun killed Adam Besharat, 23, and his cousins Hamza Besharat, 10, and Reda Besharat, eight.
The Israeli military initially said it had “struck a terrorist cell” in Tammun. It later said the incident was “under review” due to “various reports regarding the results of the strike”.
The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry condemned the strike as “heinous crime”.
It called the incident a “clear reproduction of violations committed by the Israeli government against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”, where Israel is fighting a war, and a “flagrant violation of international law”.
The strike that killed Adam, Hamza and Reda Besharat happened while Israeli troops raided several homes in Tammun, the town’s mayor told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The governor of Tubas, Ahmed Asaad, and Adam’s mother, Abla Besharat, said the cousins were sitting down in front of a house when they were targeted by a drone.
“I heard a bang and found my son here,” Mrs Besharat told Reuters news agency as she gestured towards a blood-stained wall and pavement. “He was taking his last breath.”
“They [Israeli troops] wouldn’t let me get close to him. A large squad arrived, forced us to go inside, and confiscated our phones. They didn’t allow me to see him. They went inside, got blankets from the house, wrapped them up, and took them away.”
She said Reda also died at the scene, but that Hamza was badly wounded and still alive when the troops took him away.
“They wouldn’t let the ambulance come in. His mother kept yelling but they did not care.”
Mr Asaad told AFP news agency that the Israeli troops took the cousins away shortly after the attack. Their bodies were later handed back to Palestinian authorities for funeral rites.
Pictures and videos posted online on Wednesday evening showed mourners preparing the boys’ bodies for burial and then carrying them through crowded streets.
The strike in Tammun was the second in two days.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had killed two members of an “armed terrorist cell” that fired at troops conducting a raid in the village. The Palestinian health ministry said two men, aged 18 and 24, were killed.
The previous day, three Israelis were killed in a shooting attack on a bus and two cars in the village of al-Funduq, 25km (15 miles) south-west of Tammun.
The military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed they were behind the attack on Wednesday evening.
There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza.
More than 800 Palestinians have been killed, the UN says, as Israeli forces have intensified their nearly daily search and arrest raids.
Israel says it is trying to stem Palestinian attacks in the West Bank and Israel, in which at least 44 Israelis have been killed, according to the UN.
