Five Palestinians killed in occupied West Bank: ministry

Four people, aged 20 to 25, were killed and a 14-year-old injured by Israeli army fire in Tulkarem, the ministry said.

The Israeli army said the fatalities were "terrorists", accusing them of being behind attacks on Israelis.

The Palestinian ministry condemned the "assassinations carried out by the Israeli occupying forces" in the city in the northwest of West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

The ministry had initially reported three deaths. Witnesses in Tulkarem told AFP that three armed men were killed when their car was intercepted by undercover Israeli agents.

The agents "shot at them in a street in the north of the city and the three men died", one of the witnesses said on condition of anonymity.

Social media images, which AFP was unable to independently verify, showed gun-wielding soldiers in military gear around an intercepted vehicle.

The Israeli army said "four terrorists from a terrorist network" inside Tulkarem, who were allegedly behind dozens of shooting attacks in the area, were killed.

Earlier, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces killed a young man and seriously injured three others in the town of Halhul, in the south of the West Bank.

According to the ministry, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or in attacks by settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a surprise visit to the West Bank where the pair discussed "the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians", the State Department said.