JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's military said it hit a command centre for militant fighters in the West Bank city of Jenin in a strike early on Monday that local residents said killed at least one person and involved a missile fired from the air.
The Israeli military said it struck a "joint operations centre" which served as a command centre for fighters from the Jenin Brigades, an armed unit comprised of fighters from different militant group.
Last month, Israel killed three militant gunmen near Jenin, in the first drone strike in the West Bank since 2006 as violence across the region has surged. It declined to specify whether Monday's strike also involved a drone.
The Palestinian health ministry said one person had been killed and another wounded in the attack. Local residents said a missile fired from the air had hit a house and smoke was coming out of the wreckage.
The military said the target functioned as an "advanced observation and reconnaissance centre" and a weapons and explosives site as well as a coordination and communications hub for the militant fighters.
It provided an aerial photograph showing what it said was the target and which indicated the building hit was located near two schools and a medical centre.
Israeli forces have conducted regular raids in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, where Palestinian militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad have hundreds of armed fighters.
Only days before last month's drone strike, the army used helicopter gunships to help extract troops and vehicles from a raid on the city, after fighters used explosives against a force sent in to arrest two militant suspects.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Nidal al-Mughrabi, James Mackenzie, Editing by Nick Zieminski and Lincoln Feast.)
