Two Israeli soldiers killed in West Bank car-ramming attack

Two soldiers have been killed in a car-ramming attack in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said on Thursday.

Officials said they received a report late on Wednesday about the incident near the Palestinian city of Nablus. They said the attacker fled the scene and that soldiers had launched a search for him.

On Thursday, the military said top officials are carrying out an inquiry into the attack.

Israeli Army Radio reported that the attacker had turned himself in to Palestinian security forces, but that could not immediately be confirmed.

The Israeli military also said on Thursday that it is reviewing an incident which killed two workers with the Palestinian Red Crescent in the Gaza city of Rafah.

The Gaza Health Ministry said the two medics were killed on Wednesday when the ambulance they were travelling in to evacuate casualties came under Israeli fire.

The Israeli military said a “suspicious vehicle” approached soldiers, posing “a threat” to the forces. A tank then fired at the vehicle, the military said in a statement, but did not specify whether the vehicle was an ambulance.

Violence in the West Bank has surged throughout the war in Gaza.

Israel has been carrying out raids into Palestinian cities and towns in the territory to crack down on militancy and the incursions have led to the deaths of more than 500 Palestinians.

Most of those killed have been in clashes with the military, but people throwing stones as well as others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

Palestinian attacks against Israelis have also been on the increase in the territory.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians in the border city of Rafah reported heavy fighting on Wednesday, and Israel’s military said it seized control of the entire length of Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Fighting in Rafah has already spurred more than a million Palestinians to flee, most of whom had already been displaced in the war between Israel and Hamas.

They now seek refuge in makeshift tent camps and other war-ravaged areas, where they lack shelter, food, water and other essentials for survival, the United Nations says.

Chinese President Xi Jinping promised more humanitarian aid for people in Gaza as he opened a summit with leaders of Arab states in Beijing on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Cyprus has shipped more than 4,000 pallets of humanitarian aid to Gaza via the US-built pier and causeway off the Palestinian territory, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Konstantinos Letymbiotis said some 14,000 pallets of aid have been collected in the east Mediterranean island nation for eventual shipment to Gaza as part of the maritime aid corridor initiative.

Of the 4,134 pallets that have already reached Gaza, approximately half have been picked up by humanitarian aid groups for distribution to civilians in need. The other half has been offloaded and stored.

The aid includes food, hygiene items, shelters and pharmaceuticals. Donor countries include the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Romania. Other donors include the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism and the UN’s World Food Programme and the International Organisation for Migration.

The Cypriot official said the initiative that started on May 9 is continuing, with ships still departing with loads of aid, despite the recent damage to part of the US-built pier that suspended operations. The pier is expected to come back on line by the middle of next week.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducted about 250.

Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 others.