Four Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by Israeli fire today in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the northern occupied West Bank where the Israeli army entered at midday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Eighteen people with gunshot wounds were also hospitalized, four of them in serious condition, the ministry said, which identified three of the four dead as Omar Awadin, 16, Nidal Kazim, 28, and Yusef Karim, 29. .

“The (Israeli) security forces are currently operating the (Palestinian refugee) camp in Jenin,” the army said in a statement released around 3:40 p.m. (local time, Greek time), without giving further details. .

This latest bloody intervention by the Israeli military comes as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears to be spiraling into violence following the inauguration in late December of one of the most right-wing governments in Israel’s history, led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 84 Palestinians (including members of armed groups and civilians, including minors), 12 civilians (including three minors), one Israeli police officer, as well as a Ukrainian, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli and Palestinian sources.

Israeli forces are concentrating their operations in the northern West Bank, a stronghold of armed groups in this Palestinian territory that has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.