Tulkarem, Palestinian Territories– Israeli forces killed three Palestinian fighters in two separate firefights in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Israeli army confirmed its soldiers had been engaged in a shootout that killed two gunmen near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.
The Palestinian health ministry named the two men killed as Abdul Rahman Atta, 23, and Huthaifa Faris, 27, saying they died as a result of “occupation (Israeli) bullets”. Hamas identified them as members of its armed wing.
A third Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli soldiers later on Thursday after opening fire at a car further south in the West Bank, the army said. The Palestinian ministry confirmed a death without identifying the slain man.
The army said earlier that five Israeli police officers were wounded by an explosive device in a separate clash, which was confirmed by Hamas fighters, also in the northern West Bank.
Israel’s military said the deadly gunfight in the Tulkarem area had erupted after soldiers identified a “suspicious vehicle” near Shufa village.
“Soldiers engaged and, after exchanges of fire, the two terrorists were neutralized,” the military said.
The incident came after reports that an Israeli vehicle was shot at in the area, according to the army statement.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces “prevented our crews from treating them and took them away” from the scene at a Shufa checkpoint.
Following the shootings, Palestinians gathered on a road around bloodstains which had been marked out by leaves arranged in a heart shape on the ground, an AFP photographer said.
Surging violence
Violence also rocked the Tulkarem refugee camp during a raid by Israeli forces.
The military said forces had engaged in “an exchange of fire” and that militants hurled explosives at them.
As they withdrew from the camp, five Israeli police officers were wounded by an explosive device.
Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad fighter group said their fighters ambushed Israeli forces in Tulkarem, using improvised explosive devices.
They “detonated a number of IEDs against the vehicles storming (the camp), then engaged in clashes” at close range with the Israeli forces, Hamas said in a statement.
On Thursday afternoon, the army said an armed Palestinian had opened fired at a car in Huwara, a Palestinian town that has become the site of frequent violence since the start of the year.
Troops chased down the man and “neutralized” him in “an exchange of fire… near the scene of the attack”, the army said, with the Palestinian health ministry reporting a death.
A surge in violence has hit the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Arab Israeli war.
There has been a rise in army raids, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis and Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property.
So far this year at least 246 Palestinians, 32 Israelis and two foreigners have been killed in the conflict, including combatants and civilians on both sides, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.