Israel Defense Forces conducted a West Bank airstrike around dawn Wednesday that killed five Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least five people in the West Bank city of Tubas on Wednesday, Palestinian emergency services said, as Israeli security forces continued an extended operation that the military said targeted Iranian-backed militant groups.

Five people aged between 18 and 24 were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tubas in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry in Ramallah. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday said its air force "struck an armed terrorist cell" with a drone in the area of Tubas and that its forces were "conducting counterterrorism activity" there and in the area of Tamun in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

Five Palestinians, aged 18-24, killed in an Israeli airstrike near Tubas amid escalating violence in the West Bank.

Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between fighters and civilians, says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began.

The Israeli army on early Wednesday killed five Palestinians in an airstrike in the city of Tubas, the occupied northern West Bank, as the army started an incursion into the city.