Jerusalem: At least four Palestinian armed men were killed in a shootout with Israeli security forces during the operation of the arrest of West Bank which swept against the Islamic militant group Hamas on Sunday, the Israeli military said.
Sunday hardness is the deadliest between Israeli forces and Palestinian guerrillas in the West Bank occupied in recent weeks and come amid increasing tensions after the 11th war of this year between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said a Palestinian was shot dead near the city of Jenin and three North West Banks and three others were killed in Biddu, north of Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett said in a statement that Israeli security forces in the West Bank operated on Hamas’s operative “who would carry out a terror attack in a very urgent future”.
He said that the soldiers on the field “acted as expected of them” and said the government gave them full support.
The Israeli military said that the troops involved in the arrest in the West Bank were attacked when Palestinian armed men opened fire on soldiers.
It refused to provide more information.
The official Palestinian Wafa news agency said the 22-year-old Osama was killed during a clash surrounding the arrest in the village of Burqin North West Bank, near Jenin.
There is no direct detail about death in biddu.
The Hamas militant group, which regulates the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that Sunday murder is “the result of sustainable coordination” between internationally recognized Palestinian Authorities and the Israeli government.
Hamas spokesman Abdulative al-Qanou blamed the Palestinian rival authority, which had limited autonomy for the West Bank area, saying the recent meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli officials “pushed the job again to pursue resistance”.
Last month Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian armed men during late night attacks in Jenin, killing four Palestinians.
The last few months have increased violence in the West Bank, with more than two dozen Palestinians dead in sporadic clashes with Israeli forces and during protests.
Israel caught the West Bank in the Mideast War in 1967 and in decades since it has established dozens of settlements where nearly 500,000 settlers lived.
Palestinians seek the West Bank as part of their future countries and view settlements as the main obstacle to resolve conflict.