Six Palestinians killed in West Financial institution clashes with Israeli forces, Palestinians say By Reuters

By Raneen Sawafta

NABLUS, West Financial institution (Reuters) -5 Palestinians have been killed in one of many largest firefights in latest weeks and one other was killed later after Israeli safety forces raided the flashpoint metropolis of Nablus within the occupied West Financial institution early on Tuesday, Palestinian officers mentioned.

Shards of glass and scrap steel lined the cobblestone streets of the Previous Metropolis of Nablus as shopkeepers tried to clear the particles within the aftermath of the raid which the Israeli navy mentioned focused an explosives manufacturing website of the “Den of Lions” militant group.

“In the course of the operation, dozens of Palestinians burned tyres and hurled rocks on the troops. The troops responded with dwell hearth towards the armed suspects who have been taking pictures at them,” the navy mentioned in a press release.

Two of the lifeless have been recognized as members of the “Den of Lions,” a gaggle of Nablus gunmen with free factional affiliations, which has grown over the previous yr and been concerned in repeated clashes with Israeli forces.

A sixth man was killed in a separate conflict close to the West Financial institution city of Nabi Saleh close to Ramallah.

Palestinian well being officers mentioned no less than 20 individuals, together with some gunmen and members of the Palestinian safety forces have been additionally wounded in Nablus, which has been on the heart of violent clashes in latest months.

Greater than 100 Palestinians from the West Financial institution have been killed this yr, most since late March throughout a crackdown that adopted a string of deadly road assaults by Palestinians in Israel which killed 19 individuals.

Since then 4 members of Israel’s safety forces have been killed, an Israeli navy official mentioned, together with no less than one killed by the Den of Lions.

A senior Den of Lions member Tamer Kilani was killed in a single day on Sunday in what Palestinians described as a focused explosion carried out by Israel. The militant group vowed to take revenge for the incident.

“Israel should instantly halt its crimes,” mentioned Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who added that Abbas’s workplace had reached out to the US to “intervene to cease the aggression and finish the occupation”.

Ismail Haniyeh, political chief of the Islamist group Hamas, mentioned the deaths in Nablus “will solely inflame the revolution within the West Financial institution”.