Palestinian officials said six Palestinians, including a leader of a rising militant group, were killed on Tuesday after Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, setting off one of the largest fire fights in weeks.
The military said forces including snipers, soldiers with shoulder-fired missiles and Shin Bet intelligence agents were deployed across Nablus, battling dozens of armed fighters as well as people throwing stones and burning tyres.
The Den of Lions, a group of mainly young Nablus gunmen with loose factional affiliations has grown rapidly over the past year and fought repeated clashes with Israeli forces as violence has surged across the West Bank in recent months.
In all, five Palestinians including two members of the Den of Lions were killed in Nablus while a sixth man was killed in a protest near the West Bank town of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah.
At least 20 people, including some gunmen and members of the Palestinian security forces, were also wounded in Nablus, which has been at the centre of violent clashes in recent months and which has been under an Israeli blockade for days.
Mahmoud Al-Aloul deputy chairman of the Fatah Movement said that Palestinian security forces spotted Israeli undercover agents entering Nablus and a heavy exchange of fire followed, leading to several injuries among PA forces
An Israeli military official said there was no intention to target any PA forces who may have been caught in the crossfire.
More than hundred Palestinians from the West Bank have been killed this year, while a string of fatal street attacks by Palestinians have killed twenty people in Israel and Israeli settlements.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Abbas’s office had reached out to the United States to intervene.
