Ten die as Israeli troops enter city in West Bank
AT LEAST 10 Palestinians are dead after Israeli troops entered a major Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank in a rare daytime arrest operation.
The raid, which reduced a building to rubble and left a series of shops riddled with bullets yesterday, is one of the bloodiest battles in nearly a year of fighting.
A 72-year-old man was among those killed and 102 people were wounded, Palestinian officials said.
The raid, coupled with the high death toll, raises the prospect of further bloodshed, with the Hamas militant group saying its “patience is running out”.
A similar raid last month was followed by a deadly attack outside a Jerusalem synagogue.
The Israeli military gave few details about its operation in the territory’s northern city of Nablus, which is known as a militant stronghold. The army frequently operates there in what it describes as a crackdown on militant groups.
However, the Israeli army usually carries out its operations at night, when it says the risk of civilian casualties is lower. There was no immediate explanation for yesterday’s raid, which took place just before noon.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said six of the wounded are in a critical condition. Palestinian militant groups claimed three of the dead as members.
There was no immediate word on whether the others belonged to armed groups.
Last month, Israeli troops killed 10 militants in a similar raid in the northern West Bank. The following day, a lone Palestinian gunman opened fire near a synagogue in an east Jerusalem settlement, killing seven people.
The fighting comes at a sensitive time, less than two months after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new hard-line government took office. The government is dominated by ultranationalists who have pushed for tougher action against Palestinian militants. Israeli media have quoted top security officials as expressing concern that this could lead to even more violence.
In the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the ruling Hamas militant group said: “The resistance in Gaza is observing the enemy’s escalating crimes against our people in the occupied West Bank and its patience is running out.”
The group has battled Israel in four wars since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, and Israeli officials have expressed concerns about rising tensions ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.