Six Palestinians, 1 Israeli killed in West Bank clash: Officials

Israeli aircraft fired on Palestinian militants who had attacked troops in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the military said, and officials said six Palestinians were killed in the airstrike.

An Israeli border police officer was killed and others wounded when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device during operations in the West Bank city of Jenin, the military and police said.

A helicopter helped rescue them with covering fire, the military said, adding that an aircraft fired at a "terrorist squad that hurled explosives and endangered our forces, a number of terrorists were killed."

The Palestinian Health Ministry said six Palestinians were killed in the strike that it said had targeted people who had gathered at the site. Four of those killed were brothers, according to family members.

The strike came as by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the region.

He started his week-long trip on Saturday, aimed at calming tension that has spiked since Israel's war with Hamas, which began after Hamas fighters attacked Israel three months ago, 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 occupied 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 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.