The call came in the middle of the night, Mohammed Shula said. His daughter-in-law, eight months pregnant with her first child, was whispering. There was panic in her voice. “Help, please,” Shula recalled her saying.

Two Palestinian women, one of them pregnant, were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as Israel stepped up raids on militants in the area.

The fatal shooting of 23-year-old Sondos Shalabi, eight months pregnant with her first child, comes as Israel escalates violence against civilians in the occupied territory.

Dozens of Palestinian families fled on Monday from the Nur Shams refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, as Israel pushed on with a sweeping military operation.Violence has exploded in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's October 7,