Israel kills two Hamas militants in West Bank air strike

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel said it killed two senior Hamas militants in an air strike on their car in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, claiming they were involved in the killing of an Israeli.

A joint statement from the Israel Security Agency and the Israel Defense Forces identified the militants as Ahmed Abu Ara and Rafet Dawasi, both from the West Bank's northern district around Jenin.

In a statement, Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades military wing said it was mourning the deaths of two fighters in an Israeli air strike on their vehicle in Jenin.

The Israeli statement said the two militants were involved in planning a shooting attack last week in the West Bank's Jordan Valley where an Israeli man, Yonatan Deutsch, was killed.

Israeli authorities said then that Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a main road in the occupied West Bank on Aug. 11, killing one and wounding another.

Later that day, the al-Qassam Brigades said its West Bank-based fighters killed an Israeli soldier at point-blank range near the settlement of Mehola in the Jordan Valley and "returned to their bases safely."

Hamas said the operation came in retaliation for Israel's strike on a school where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in Gaza City which the civil defense service said had killed at least 90 people.

Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas broke out in October, with more Israeli raids, Jewish settler violence and Palestinian street attacks.

In a move condemned by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, Israeli settlers killed at least one Palestinian on Thursday in an attack on a village near the West Bank city of Qalqilya.

The latest West Bank violence comes as a new round of talks in Doha aimed at ending 10 months of fighting in Gaza are due to resume next week.

The Gaza war and escalating West Bank violence threaten to spill into a wider regional conflict involving Iran and its proxies in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. —Reuters