10 Palestinians killed, scores hurt in Israel West Bank raid
NABLUS, WEST BANK — Israeli troops on Wednesday entered a major Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank in a rare daytime arrest operation, triggering fighting that killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded scores of others.
The raid, which reduced a building to rubble and left a series of shops riddled with bullets, was one of the bloodiest battles in nearly a year of fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. A 72-year-old man was among the dead, and 102 people were wounded, Palestinian officials said.
The brazen raid, coupled with the high death toll, raised the prospect of further bloodshed. A similar raid last month was followed by a deadly Palestinian attack outside a Jerusalem synagogue, and the Hamas militant group warned that “its patience is running out.”
In a move that could further raise tensions, Israel’s West Bank settler organization said Israeli officials had approved construction of nearly 2,000 new homes in West Bank settlements. The Israeli government did not immediately confirm the decision, which came just two days after the U.N. Security Council approved a watered-down statement opposing settlement construction.
The Israeli military said it entered Nablus on Wednesday to arrest three wanted militants suspected in previous shooting attacks in the West Bank, including the killing of an Israeli soldier last fall.
The military usually conducts raids at night in what it says is a tactic meant to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. It said it took advantage of a rare window of opportunity after intelligence services tracked down the men in a hideout and warned they posed an imminent threat.
The army said it surrounded the building and asked the men to surrender, but instead they opened fire. When one of the militants tried to flee the building, he was shot and killed, said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a military spokesman. The military then fired missiles at the house, he added, leaving it in ruins and killing the other two men.
A recently formed armed group based in the Old City of Nablus called the Lion’s Den, which has surged in prominence over the past months, confirmed the militants were its members.
During the raid, the military said armed men in the city “shot heavily toward the forces,” which responded with live fire. It said others hurled rocks and explosives at the troops. There were no Israeli casualties.
Time-stamped security footage widely shared online appeared to show two unarmed young men running down a street. Gunshots are heard, and both fall to the ground, with one’s hat flying off his head. Both bodies remained still.
Hecht called the video “problematic,” and said the military was looking into it.
In the Old City of Nablus, people stared at the rubble that had been the large home in the centuries-old casbah. From one end to the other, shops were riddled with bullets. Parked cars were crushed. Blood stained the cement ruins. Furniture from the destroyed home was scattered among mounds of debris.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 102 people were wounded, and six of them were in critical condition. Various Palestinian militant groups claimed six of the dead — including the three from Lion’s Den targeted in the raid — as members. But a 72-year-old man was also killed. 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.
Days later, five Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli arrest raid elsewhere in the West Bank. That was followed by a Palestinian car ramming that killed three Israelis, including two young brothers, in Jerusalem.
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.