Five Palestinian militants were killed on Wednesday during a gunbattle after Israeli forces launched a pre-dawn raid in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, security sources said.
The victims, four of whom were members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, were shot dead after troops had encircled a house in the Old City area.
Around 20 jeeps and tanks took part in the operation, with aerial cover from an Israeli helicopter.
The four slain members of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, were named as Nader Al-Aswad, Moulhem Abu Jamila, Abbud Salem and Mohammed Merhi.
The fifth victim, Hani Al-Aqqad, was a member of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Some 20 jeeps and armoured vehicles had entered the western sector of the Old City and surrounded a building, a Palestinian security source said earlier.
After news of the killings began to filter through the city, clashes broke out between the soldiers and groups of stone-throwers.
Ten Palestinians were wounded during the clashes, including a 14-year-old boy who was in a serious condition in hospital, medics said.
An Israeli military source confirmed that five men had been killed during the course of an arrest operation.
The death of the four men comes just two days after three other members of the same faction were killed in an Israeli air strike on their car in the nearby town of Jenin.
Leaders of the group have already threatened to take their revenge with an attack on Israel’s commercial capital Tel Aviv and dispatched a suicide bomber, Yussef Taleb Ighbariyeh, who wounded two Israeli soldiers when he blew himself up on Tuesday near the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya.
As is standard after suicide attacks, the Israeli army demolished Taleb Ighbariyeh’s family home in Qalqilya on Wednesday.
Thousands of people were expected to attend the funerals for the five latest victims as a general strike was called in Nablus.
Israel has imposed a general closure on the Palestinian territories for the start of the Jewish new year holiday, which officially begins at sundown Wednesday. Police and army reinforcements have been deployed on the streets of the major cities in Israel to man mobile checkpoints.
A total of 4 312 people have now been killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, four years ago, including 3 298 Palestinians and 943 Israelis.
Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, nine houses were destroyed by the army during a series of incursions in the territory, security and military sources said.
A young girl was also injured by gunfire during one of the raids in the southern Khan Yunis refugee camp.
Seven of the houses were destroyed and nearby fields razed in the Al-Moughraqa area, which lies close to the Jewish settlement of Netzarim. – Sapa-AFP