JERUSALEM, March 18 (Reuters) – Three Palestinian women were killed in an Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank late on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, in the first deadly Iranian strike there, and the first to kill Palestinians, since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
The missile struck a hair salon in the town of Beit Awwa, southwest of Hebron, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported. Thirteen were wounded, one of them seriously.
The Israeli military said it understood the strike was caused by a cluster munition, a warhead that splits into tiny bomblets that scatter into a disparate area.
At least 15 people have been killed in Israel since Israel and the U.S. launched attacks on Iran at the end of February, sparking a regional conflict.
Iran has been sending daily missiles towards Israel, and there have been no reports of it deliberately targeting Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Most Israelis have access to bomb shelters that protect them from cluster munitions and falling debris, but virtually no such shelters exist for Palestinians in the West Bank.
Many Palestinians rely on either the sound of sirens from Jewish settlements or neighbouring cities in Israel to alert them to rocket volleys.
The settlements, built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, are regarded as illegal by most world powers. Israel denies the settlements are illegal and asserts a biblical birthright to the land.
The streets in the West Bank have been packed in recent days as many Palestinian families purchase sweets and presents in anticipation of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
(Reporting by Pesha Magid, Ali Sawafta and Roleen Tafakji; Editing by Howard Goller and Stephen Coates)
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