16-year-old Palestinian girl killed as Israeli operation in West Bank continues

Israeli forces killed three people, including a 16-year-old Palestinian girl in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, as a major Israeli operation in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm continued for a seventh day.

The girl, identified as Lujain Osama Musleh, was killed in the town of Kafr Dan, just outside Jenin, where Israeli troops have been operating for days and where they demolished a house on Tuesday.

The military gave no immediate details of the incident but said it was looking into the report.

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Two Palestinians were also killed in the city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad said fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces in Jenin and Tulkarm, which have seen repeated clashes between Israeli troops and armed Palestinian fighters over recent months.

With the latest deaths, a total of at least 34 Palestinians have been killed during the operation.

One Israeli soldier has been killed in Jenin, while in an apparently separate incident, three police officers were killed by a gunman who fired on their vehicle near Hebron in the southern West Bank.

Hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters and drones have been operating in Jenin and Tulkarm as well as other areas of the West Bank for the past week in a drive the military says is aimed at combatting Iranian-backed militant groups.

The operation has caused severe damage to infrastructure as armoured bulldozers have torn up large stretches of city streets, in what the army says is a search for roadside bombs, and destroyed or severely damaged houses and other buildings.

As it has gone on, aid workers have begun to warn that people in the area are starting to run low on food and water.

• The Gaza mothers separated from their newborns by war