Smoke billows after an explosion during an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on February 9, 2025. AFP
The ministry reported that Sondos Jamal Muhammad Shalabi, 23, who was eight months pregnant, was shot and killed by Israeli fire, while her husband suffered a critical head injury.
The medical teams in Tulkarm could not save the baby’s life because the Israeli occupation forces obstructed the evacuation of the wounded to the hospital, WAFA news agency reported.
Murad Alyan, a member of the popular committee in the Nur Shams camp, told AFP that the couple "were trying to leave the camp before the occupation forces advanced into it. They were shot while they were inside their car."
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it described as "a crime of execution committed by the occupation forces", accusing Israeli forces of "deliberately targeting defenceless civilians".
The health ministry later said a second woman, 21-year-old Rahaf Fouad Abdullah al-Ashqar was killed in a separate incident in Nur Shams.
A source in the camp's popular committee said she was killed and her father wounded when the "Israeli forces used explosives to open the door of their family house".
AFP footage from Nur Shams showed army bulldozers clearing a path in front of what appeared to be empty buildings in the densely packed camp, which is home to about 13,000 people.
The Israeli military earlier said its forces were "expanding the operation in northern Samaria", using the biblical term for the north of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
The Israeli assault on Tulkarm in northern West Bank has entered its 14th consecutive day, causing widespread destruction to infrastructure and forcing residents to flee their homes.
On Sunday, Israeli forces deployed large military reinforcements, including heavy machinery and bulldozers, into the Nur Shams camp.
The army carried out raids on dozens of homes, accompanied by intense live fire, loud explosions, and low-flying surveillance drones, WAFA added.
Mass displacement
Since the start of the year, the ongoing Israeli crackdown in the northern West Bank governorates has killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed hundreds of homes, forcing thousands to flee for their lives.
As part of its large-scale assault that began in early January, Israel also stationed additional military reinforcements to Tammun town and Al-Fara’a refugee camp in the Tubas governorate on Sunday, Palestinian media platforms reported.
The Israeli forces tightened the siege on the Tammun and Al-Fara’a camps and bombed over 100 homes in the Jenin refugee camp.
An Al Jazeera tally indicated that the Israeli assault on the northern West Bank has forcibly displaced 30,000 Palestinians from their homes in the past two weeks.
Moreover, the Palestinian health ministry reported that the occupation forces have killed over 70 people, including 10 children, in the West Bank since the start of the year.
These losses add to the 888 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began on 7 October 2023.
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