Israeli forces have killed four Palestinian gunmen and injured more than 40 others during a military raid in a refugee camp in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Commandos, some of them undercover, were reportedly sent into Jenin to capture two Palestinians suspected of carrying out gun ambushes, Israeli police said.
The Palestinian ministry of health said on Wednesday morning that the men killed were Ahmad Alawneh, Abed Hazem, Mohammad al-Wanneh and Mohammad Abu Naa’sah.
Abed Hazem and al-Wannah were killed when Hazem’s father’s home was hit by a missile, as reported by Al-Jazeera.
The Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades factions said four of their gunmen were killed. One of them worked for the security services of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank.
According to a statement from Israeli police, the Palestinians opened fire and set off a bomb, and were subsequently shot.
The raid touched off clashes elsewhere in Jenin, which, along with the neighbouring city of Nablus, has been a focus of Israeli forces. Approximately 44 Palestinians were wounded, medics said.
“We are in great need of members of the security services,” an umbrella group of local militants said in an open statement addressed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Declare the fight, and we will be your soldiers. This enemy knows only the language of firepower.”
Israel and the United States have been pressing the PA to do more to boost security. The PA accuses Israel of undermining its credibility.
“We have not hesitated to go anywhere that the Palestinian Authority has not gone to carry out arrests,” Ram Ben-Barak, chairman of the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, told Ynet Radio. “Does this create friction? Yes.”
Another of the slain Jenin gunmen was the brother of a Palestinian, Raad Hazem, who shot dead three people in Tel Aviv in April - among attacks that killed 19 people in Israel and triggered its “Operation Breakwater” campaign. More than 70 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed since.
Earlier this month, Israeli forces blew up Hazem’s apartment, killing a 29-year-old man and injuring 16 others.
