Israeli forces kill four, including two teenagers, in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have shot dead four Palestinians, including two teenagers, during a military raid on a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Tubas, taking the toll in the occupied territory to over 300 since the war in Gaza began.

Mohammad Samir Milhem, 17, his brother Hikmat, 24, and Yazan Khatib, 20, were shot in the head by Israeli troops in the Al-Fara camp near Tubas, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday. Rashed Habib al-Aydi, 17, was shot in the chest.

The ministry said all four died from gunshot wounds, three of them to the head and one in the chest.

The latest killings bring to 301, the number of Palestinians who have been killed throughout the West Bank since October 7, when the Israeli regime started ramping up its violent raids across the occupied territory.

The regime started a genocidal war against the Gaza Strip on that day, which has so far claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Meanwhile, another US official is in the occupied lands amid the Israeli regime’s onslaught against the Gaza Strip. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin once again endorsed Washington’s unflinching support for Tel Aviv’s genocide of Palestinians.

The Pentagon chief has already met with the regime’s war minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv.

Austin is also expected to meet with other senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The meetings are expected to discuss Israel’s plans for a transition to a so-called next phase of the war. Austin is the latest US official to visit Israel since the regime began its bloodbath in Gaza in early October.

Khalil al-Hayya, a senior member of Hamas has said the resistance group will not enter into a prisoner swap agreement with Israel unless the regime stops its onslaught on Gaza.

He said it would not be sensible to sign a prisoner exchange deal with Israel while Palestinians are under fire. He also says Hamas has what it takes to resist for months, adding whoever thinks of a post-Hamas era is in delusion.

Al-Hayya has urged Muslim countries to force the Israeli regime into allowing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. The top Hamas official argued that the entry of 100 trucks with relief aid is not enough, at all, for besieged Gazans.

He says the resistance front will continue to counter the occupiers and inflict further losses on them.

Israeli forces keep bombing every corner of the war-ravaged territory. Some 19,500 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in nearly two and a half months of the regime’s relentless attacks