Israeli security forces shot and killed a 23-year-old pregnant Palestinian woman Sunday in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Sundos Jamal Mohammed Shalabi, who was eight months pregnant, was struck by Israeli gunfire, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the fetus also did not survive and that Shalabi's husband was critically injured.
Details of Shalabi's death were not immediately clear while Israel's military made no immediate comment.
The Palestinian state news agency cited eyewitnesses as saying that Shalabi and her husband were shot by Israeli forces as they were displaced from the camp by the assault.
The Israeli army raided the camp early Sunday and forced several families out of their homes and converted them into military outposts.
The military had said it was expanding operations in the north of the West Bank to Nur Shams, a refugee camp close to the Palestinian town Tulkarem.
The offensive involved a large number of Israeli forces, reinforced with bulldozers, which entered the camp and imposed a blockade on it, they said.
Witnesses said that bulldozers began demolishing the entrance to the al-Maslakh neighborhood in the camp.
In a statement, Tulkarem Gov. Abdullah Kamil confirmed the Israeli raid on the camp and called for international intervention to stop what he called the "unprecedented aggression" in the area.
Kamil said that emergency medical teams were being prevented from reaching those injured in the camp, further worsening the humanitarian situation.
Nihad Shawish, a local activist in the camp, said that over 150 families had been forced to flee their homes under Israeli threats, with soldiers converting their homes into military outposts.
Shawish emphasized that the camp was now surrounded by the Israeli army, which deployed snipers across the area.
He said the army had informed displaced families that they would not be allowed to return for at least two weeks.
Earlier Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that the army was expanding its offensive in the northern West Bank to include the Nur Shams refugee neighborhood.
"We are smashing the ... infrastructure in the refugee camps and preventing their return," he said in his statement, which was posted on X.
Israel's military, police and intelligence services launched a massive raid in Jenin on Jan. 21, described by officials as a "large-scale and significant military operation."
The operation expanded to Tulkarm, Al Faraa and Tamun, with the military targeting Palestinian resistance groups.
Israel views the West Bank as part of a multi-front war against Iranian-backed groups around its borders. It launched the operation after agreeing to a cease-fire in its genocidal war in Gaza.
Thousands of Palestinians have fled West Bank homes in the wake of the military campaign and the widespread destruction.
Palestinians have said the Israeli campaign is one of the most destructive in recent memory. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military claims it has killed "militants".
On Thursday, a report released by Doctors Without Borders condemned the escalating violence by the Israeli military and Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
It cited 870 Palestinian deaths and over 7,100 injuries since the Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023, while accusing Israel of systematically obstructing health care and preventing access to medical care.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recorded 657 attacks on the West Bank health-care system between Oct. 7, 2023, and Feb. 4, 2025.
This month, the Israeli military also released a video of a controlled demolition of at least 23 buildings in the crowded Jenin refugee camp allegedly use by resistance groups.
The refugee camp has been a center of resistance for decades and the target of repeated Israeli raids. Israeli security forces alleges the groups have become more sophisticated with support from Iran, without providing any evidence.
Israel has occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the Six-Day War of 1967. Today, around 700,000 Israeli settlers live there among 3 million Palestinians.
The Palestinians claim the territories for a state of their own, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
