Live updates | Israel’s forces raid a West Bank refugee camp as its military expands Gaza offensive

Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, killing at least six Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities said early Wednesday. The Israeli military had also expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to the densely populated urban refugee camps in the central part of the territory Tuesday.

Residents reported shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps in the tiny, cramped enclave. The built-up towns hold Palestinians whose families fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s independence. The camps are now crowded with Palestinians who fled northern Gaza in the early stages of Israel’s ground offensive.

More than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.

About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, with around 240 people taken hostage. Israel says it aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.

Currently:

— The U.N. appoints a former Dutch deputy premier and Mideast expert as its Gaza humanitarian coordinator.

— An Israeli airstrike in Syria kills a high-ranking Iranian general.

— Biden orders strikes on an Iranian-aligned group after three U.S. troops are wounded in drone attack in Iraq.

— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Here’s what’s happening in the war:

ISRAELI FORCES KILL AT LEAST 6 PALESTINIANS IN A RAID IN THE WEST BANK

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel’s forces raided a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, killing at least six Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities said early Wednesday.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, an Israeli drone strike hit a group of Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp next to the town of Tulkarem.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said six bodies have been brought to the Thabet Thabet hospital. The Palestinian Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of disrupting ambulances transporting the dead and wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war started Oct. 7. At least 310 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, according to the health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.