Israeli army kills three Palestinians during raid in West Bank

Troops wound eight others while carrying out operation in Jenin

People stand next to a damaged vehicle after a raid by Israeli troops in Jenin, occupied West Bank on Friday. Reuters

Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinians and wounded eight others early on Friday during a military operation in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The Israeli military said troops traded fire with militants.

Israeli troops have been carrying out near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank since a string of attacks earlier this year killed 19 people in Israel. Many of the raids and arrests have taken place in and around Jenin, the home town of several of those accused by Israel of carrying out the attacks.

The military said it raided two locations in search of weapons. At the first, it said, soldiers fired back after Palestinians opened fire and hurled explosive devices. On their way to the second location, they exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen in a vehicle, the army said.

Israel did not say whether any of the militants were killed. It said the troops seized rifles, a submachine-gun and other equipment from the vehicle.

The sounds of heavy exchanges of gunfire could be heard in videos circulated on social media. Later, footage on social media showed a bullet-riddled vehicle with bloodstains and residents inspecting it.

Hundreds of angry residents gathered outside a Jenin hospital after the overnight raid, chanting “God is greatest” and calling for revenge, before carrying the three bodies on stretchers through the town in a spontaneous funeral procession. The three were to be buried later on Friday.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. The last serious peace talks broke down more than a decade ago, leaving no end in sight to Israel’s 55-year-old military rule.