Israeli forces have killed four Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank, pursuing a half-year-long campaign of raids triggered by a series of lethal street attacks in Israel.
Commandos, some of them undercover, were sent into the town of Jenin to capture two Palestinians suspected of carrying out gun ambushes, Israeli police said.
The Palestinians opened fire and set off a bomb, and were shot, the statement added.
The raid touched off clashes elsewhere in Jenin, which, along with the neighbouring city of Nablus, has been a focus of Israeli forces.
Some 40 Palestinians were wounded, medics said.
The Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades factions said four of their gunmen were killed.
One of them worked for the security services of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank.
“We are in great need of members of the security services,” an umbrella group of local militants said in an open statement addressed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Declare the fight, and we will be your soldiers. This enemy knows only the language of firepower.”
Israel and the United States have been pressing the PA to do more to boost security.
Read the article in The New Daily (AAP).