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Qassam Brigades local commander among 5 killed in Israel attack on Tulkarem

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Qassam Brigades local commander among 5 killed in Israel attack on Tulkarem

Medical sources tell Al Jazeera that Haitham Balidi, a leader of Hamas’s military wing in Nablus, was killed in an air attack on a car in the occupied West Bank.

At least five people, including a local commander of Hamas’s military wing, have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.

Medical sources confirmed to Al Jazeera on Saturday that one of the people killed was Haitham Balidi, leader of the Qassam Brigades in the Nablus area. Another person was identified by a relative as one of the leaders of al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

The identities of the other people were not immediately clear. Family members went to a hospital in Tulkarem to identify the dismembered bodies brought there.

The Israeli military said the car contained a “terrorist squad,” without further elaborating. Air attacks in the occupied Palestinian territory have surged since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, with authorities recording at least 29 strikes which killed more than 80 Palestinians.

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The attack took place as the Israeli army raided several towns across the West Bank.

In Tulkarem city, Israeli bulldozers destroyed infrastructure, while in Nablus Israeli soldiers rounded up three Palestinians, including a journalist. Other incursions were reported in Jenin, Faqqa, Deir Abu Daif, Bethlehem and near Ramallah. In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces once again arrested activist Ramzi Abbasi after he had been released last November.

Since October 7, Israeli forces have killed at least 600 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 144 children.

Meanwhile, ground Israeli raids and mass arrests in the West Bank have also ballooned over the same period, becoming a nearly daily occurrence.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society watchdog says more than 9,300 people have ended up in Israeli prisons. Of these, at least 3,400 are in so-called administrative detention, a controversial practice that allows Israel to hold suspects for extended periods without having committed an offence.

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Israeli incursion in cities and towns across the occupied West Bank is also causing major disruption for civilian life. The UNRWA agency for Palestinian refugees said on Friday that the situation in the West Bank is worsening daily in what it described as a “silent war” amid water shortages and electricity outages.

Since 1967, the West Bank has been under Israeli occupation. In a landmark, yet non-binding ruling, the International Court of Justice last month declared Israel’s continued presence unlawful.

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Middle East latest: Israeli strikes kill a family of 6 and a Hamas spokesman in Gaza

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Middle East latest: Israeli strikes kill a family of 6 and a Hamas spokesman in Gaza

Israeli strikes overnight and into Thursday killed a family of six and a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip.

A strike hit the tent where Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua was staying in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, killing him, according to Basem Naim, another Hamas official.

Another strike near Gaza City killed four children and their parents, according to the emergency service of Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas last week, launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians. It has vowed to escalate the offensive if Hamas does not release hostages, disarm and leave the territory.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

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Search 'ongoing' for 4 American soldiers missing from training area in Lithuania: NATO

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Search 'ongoing' for 4 American soldiers missing from training area in Lithuania: NATO

Search efforts remain underway for four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing while training in Lithuania, leaving behind a sunken military vehicle, a NATO spokesperson clarified Wednesday, despite earlier claims that they were deceased.

NATO said the search is “ongoing” and that the fate of the missing “is still unknown,” according to a statement posted on X.

“This is still early news so we do not know the details,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters in Warsaw. “This is really terrible news and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones.” 

Asked Wednesday evening by reporters if he had been briefed about the missing soldiers, President Donald Trump said, “No, I haven’t.”

Few details surrounding the incident were immediately provided by U.S. officials. 

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A U.S. official would say only that the four soldiers were involved in a training accident, The Associated Press reported. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not comment on the status of the soldiers.

The soldiers were conducting scheduled tactical training near Pabradė, a town north of the capital Vilnius, when they went missing, U.S. Army Europe and Africa public affairs in Wiesbaden, Germany, said in a statement. 

The missing M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle carrying the four soldiers was later found in a body of water in a training area during a search by the U.S. Army, Lithuanian Armed Forces and other Lithuanian authorities. 

FOREIGN NATIONALS FLYING DRONES OVER US MILITARY SITES RAISES ‘ESPIONAGE’ CONCERN: EXPERT

Eurocopters Tiger of the German Army take part in Lithuanian-German military exercises at a training range in Pabrade, north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, on May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)

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The soldiers, all from the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division — a unit stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia, went missing during the scheduled tactical training, according to the statement.

Recovery efforts are underway by U.S. Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.

Search efforts for the soldiers continue, and the 3rd Infantry Division is keeping the soliders’ families informed on the status of search efforts.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with our Raider Brigade Soldiers and Families during the search for our four missing Dogface Soldiers in Lithuania,” the division wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Further updates about the search for the missing soldiers would be provided as information becomes available, the U.S. military said.

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BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS MISSING AND MURDERED UNIT INVESTIGATING ALLEGED MILITARY BASE KILLING

The training ground in Pabradė is located less than 6 miles from the border with Belarus.

“I would like to personally thank the Lithuanian Armed Forces and first responders who quickly came to our aid in our search operations,” Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, the V Corps commanding general, said in a written statement. “It’s this kind of teamwork and support that exemplifies the importance of our partnership and our humanity regardless of what flags we wear on our shoulders.”

Lithuania, a member of NATO, has often had tense relations with Russia, a key ally of Belarus, since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Latvia and Estonia, the other Baltic countries that broke away from the Soviet Union, have had similarly chilly ties with Russia.

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Relations soured further over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Fort Stewart did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Emmanuel Macron announces €2 billion in additional military aid for Ukraine

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French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday evening in Paris to prepare a summit of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, a group of countries ready to provide Ukraine with long-term security guarantees.

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