Five Palestinian fighters from Fatah, the movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, were killed early Saturday morning in a rare airstrike in Nablus, the major city in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent and sources in bays of Fatah.

The Israeli military said it had “eliminated a certain number of terrorists in Balata,” the Palestinian refugee camp in Nablus that is home to 24,000 people, according to the UN that runs it.

Balata is known as a stronghold of young fighters who are members of the armed wings of various Palestinian movements, led by Fatah. It was founded by Yasser Arafat and now heads the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel for 56 years.

There are also fighters from Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which is in power in Gaza.

The Palestinian Red Crescent announced overnight that 5 people were killed and 2 wounded by an airstrike on what the camp authorities said was a building housing the Fatah headquarters.

The Israeli military said it killed there mainly “Muhammad Zohud, a terrorist involved in an April shooting incident in Jerusalem that injured two Israelis.”

It also announced that it had “hit a hideout used by terrorists planning imminent terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and military targets”.

So far, only Jenin — the other major city in the northern part of this Palestinian territory, where there are frequent and often deadly clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers — has suffered Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank.