NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) -Israeli troops killed three Palestinians, including an elderly man and a youth, in clashes that erupted when they besieged Islamic Jihad gunmen in a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, witnesses and medical officials said.
The Israeli military confirmed that an operation was under way in Nablus but did not immediately provide further details.
Sources in the Islamic Jihad militant faction said two of its Nablus commanders had been encircled in a house by Israeli troops and other gunmen had joined the fight. Explosions and gunfire sounded and local youths pelted troops with rocks.
Medical officials identified the three fatalities as a 72-year-old man, a 14-year-old boy and a 24-year-old man. They said another 41 Palestinians were wounded, five of them critically.
Nablus and nearby Jenin have been a focus of raids that Israel has intensified over the last year following a spate of lethal Palestinian street attacks in its cities.
At least 50 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed this year, the Palestinian health ministry said. Ten Israelis and a Ukrainian tourist have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israel’s foreign ministry.
“We condemn the occupation’s raid into Nablus and we call for an end to the continued attacks against our people,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
