Israeli troops kill 3 Palestinian militants after rise in attacks

Israeli security forces killed three Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank early Saturday as they continued to scale up their operations in response to a wave of terrorist attacks in Israel.

Israeli police said in a statement that the militants had been intercepted while driving through the northern West Bank after authorities received a tip that they were about to carry out an attack.

The three men were killed in a subsequent shootout that also left four Israeli soldiers wounded, police said. The Islamic Jihad militant group later confirmed that three of its members had been killed by Israeli security forces Saturday morning, but it did not comment on the claims about a potential attack.

The episode brings the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli military operations in the West Bank this past week to at least six. Three others were killed Thursday morning during an Israeli raid in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank, Palestinian health officials said.

Israel security forces have bolstered their presence across Israel and the occupied territories since a Palestinian gunman killed five people in Bnei Brak, a city in central Israel, on Tuesday.

That was the latest in a string of terrorist attacks in Israel that killed 11 people since March 22.

The army has sent several extra battalions to the West Bank, called up reservists and posted reinforcements along the boundary between Israel and Gaza.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also called on Israeli civilians with licensed firearms to carry their guns with them in public.

The measures reflect the heightened sense of anxiety in Israel after three unusually brazen and deadly attacks, in three Israeli cities that have rarely been at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Officials and analysts fear that the violence could escalate in the coming weeks, when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began Saturday, will overlap with Passover and Easter for the first time in several years.

The festivals are expected to compound tensions in the Old City of Jerusalem, where access to and control over a holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims — known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary — long has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.