THREE Palestinians were killed in an Israeli army raid in a West Bank refugee camp early today, Palestinian health officials said.

This came after the United States issued an unusually sharp condemnation of Israel’s latest act of settlement expansion.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that the three men were killed during a raid in Balata, a refugee camp near the city of Nablus. Six people were also wounded, including one who was in critical condition, the ministry said.

The Israeli occupation forces said that soldiers had raided Balata after they had come under fire. They confirmed they had killed three Palestinians and arrested three others. 

Israel has stepped up raids over the past year in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks and said today’s operations netted weapons and an explosives manufacturing operation in a home, which it detonated.

Meanwhile, the US issued a sharply worded statement on Sunday criticising Israel for moving to re-establish settlers at the formerly evacuated outpost of Homesh in northern West Bank.

In March, the Israeli government repealed a 2005 act that dismantled four West Bank settlements and over the weekend a top Israeli army general in the West Bank signed an order attaching Homesh to a local settler regional council which paves the way for reconstruction of the outpost.

The US was “deeply troubled” by what State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said was Israel’s illegal policy on the outpost in the occupied territory.

Mr Miller also expressed Washington’s concerns about ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.

The site is also home to the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

“This holy space should not be used for political purposes and we call on all parties to respect its sanctity,” Mr Miller said in the statement.

Jews are permitted to visit the site, but not to pray there. But in recent years a growing number of Jewish visitors have begun to quietly pray, raising fears among Palestinians that Israel is plotting to divide or take over the site. 

On Sunday Mr Ben-Gvir visited the hilltop compound declaring that “we are in charge,” while the Israeli Cabinet held a rare meeting in Jerusalem’s Old City to celebrate its control of the area. 

The visit drew condemnations from the Palestinians and Israel’s neighbour, Jordan.

More than 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the spring of 2022. About 50 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.