ReutersThe Palestinian Red Crescent said a group of young men were targeted near a mosque in TubasFive Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.The Palestinian Red Crescent said a drone targeted a group of five young men near a mosque in the city of Tubas at dawn on Wednesday, and an ambulance crew transferred the bodies to the local government hospital.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an aircraft struck a “terrorist cell” armed with explosives during a counter-terrorism operation by security forces in Tubas and the nearby town of Tamun.Later, an Israeli soldier was killed in what the IDF said was a ramming attack involving a fuel tanker elsewhere in the West Bank.The IDF said “a terrorist driving a Palestinian truck” near the Jewish settlement of Givat Assaf “accelerated towards forces conducting operational activity”.Soldiers and an armed civilian then “neutralized” the driver at the scene, it added.Israeli media posted video footage showing a tanker veering off a busy road at high speed before hitting a bus stop. They also identified the driver as a Palestinian man from Rafat.Rafat’s council leader told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that he knew the driver and did not believe it was an attack, but rather a case of him losing control of the tanker.There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing war in Gaza.More than 690 Palestinians have been killed, the Palestinian health ministry says, as Israeli forces have intensified their nearly daily search and arrest raids.Israel says it is trying to stem Palestinian attacks in the West Bank and Israel, in which at least 33 Israelis have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.The IDF said in a statement that its troops, along with forces from the Shin Bet internal security agency and Israel Prison Service, had been operating since Wednesday night to “thwart terror” in Tubas and Tamun.In addition to carrying out the air strike, they confiscated weapons, dismantled a vehicle rigged with explosives, and hit several armed fighters during exchanges of fire, it added. Earlier, an Israeli military official said there was a curfew in Tubas and that the city’s government hospital was surrounded, with people allowed to exit and enter subject to being checked by Israeli forces.Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces were carrying out large-scale raids on the city’s outskirts and several neighbourhoods.It also said another Israeli military operation was continuing in the city of Tulkarm and its refugee camps for a second day.On Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said a Palestinian man and woman were killed by gunfire from Israeli forces in Tulkarm. The IDF has not commented on that report, but the statement it put out on Wednesday said Israeli forces had “eliminated an armed terrorist and struck several others” during a counter-terrorism operation in the Tulkarm area. ReutersIsrael’s military said a soldier was killed in a tanker ramming attack in the West Bank on WednesdayThe raids come days after the largest Israeli operation in the West Bank since last October.The Palestinian health ministry said at least 36 Palestinians were killed during the nine-day operation in the Tubas, Tulkarm and Jenin areas. Most of the dead were claimed by armed groups as members, but the ministry said children were also among those killed.An Israeli soldier was also killed during the fighting in Jenin.In a separate development on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said Israel had to do more to make sure that incidents like the killing of an American-Turkish activist during a protest in the West Bank last week “never happen again”.The IDF said on Tuesday that it was “highly likely” Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was “hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her”.Mr Biden said the US had confidence in the result of the Israeli investigation but described the killing as “totally unacceptable” and demanded full accountability.An Israeli government spokesman insisted the IDF’s rules of engagement were “extremely clear in preventing any damage to any harm to civilians”.