(Reuters) – An Israeli air strike killed six Palestinians in Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday, as confrontations continue in the occupied West Bank during a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The strike targeted a gathering of citizens in Jenin, the health ministry added in a brief statement. Palestinian official television said four brothers were among the dead.
Blinken started his week-long trip on Saturday, aimed at calming tension that has spiked since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October. Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 22,700 Palestinians, Palestinian officials say, and the conflict has spilled into the West Bank, Lebanon and Red Sea shipping lanes.
The West Bank had already experienced its highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but confrontations have risen sharply as Israeli forces have launched an invasion of Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers over the past weeks and security forces have made thousands of arrests.
Blinken’s tour, which started with meetings with the leaders of Turkey and Greece, will take him to several Arab states as well as Israel and the occupied West Bank.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta; Writing by Hatem Maher; Editing by William Mallard and Clarence Fernandez)
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