Israeli military says it kills militants in West Bank drone attack

"Following the identification of the terrorist cell, an IDF UAV fired toward the cell and thwarted them." In an apparent shift in tactic, Monday's raid also included the rare use of a helicopter to push back militant fighters on the ground as military vehicles came under fire and needed to be extracted.

The Israeli military killed three Palestinians on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, in what the military said was a drone strike on a vehicle carrying a militant squad that was suspected of committing attacks.

The rare use of a drone by the military in the occupied West Bank occurred a day after four Israelis were killed in a deadly shooting in what was apparent retaliation for a military raid on Monday when Israeli security forces killed seven Palestinians. "IDF soldiers identified a terrorist cell inside a suspicious vehicle, after the cell carried out a shooting adjacent to the town of Jalamah," a statement from the Israeli military said. "Following the identification of the terrorist cell, an IDF UAV fired toward the cell and thwarted them."

In an apparent shift in tactic, Monday's raid also included the rare use of a helicopter to push back militant fighters on the ground as military vehicles came under fire and needed to be extracted. Drones and aerial devices are integrated in Israeli military activity in the West Bank but are generally used for intelligence and surveillance. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said what he called the "assassination crime" would not go unpunished.

"The use of planes by the Zionist army to assassinate our people is a grave escalation," said by telephone. An Israeli military spokesman said 2006 was the last time "this kind of thwarting" was used involving a drone.

A statement from the Jenin Brigades, which includes militants from different Palestinian factions, said two of the men killed belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group and one was from the Fatah group. The Islamic Jihad said Israel must now await "punishment" after its "foolish act to target three of our fighters by drones and detaining their bodies," in a statement.