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Israeli troops killed nine Palestinians, including a 72-year-old man, and injured 97 others during a rare daytime raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, according to Palestinian health officials.
Six men aged 23 to 72 were killed “as a result of the occupation’s aggression on Nablus,” the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli army confirmed it was carrying out an operation in Nablus but did not immediately provide further details.
The Islamic Jihad militant faction said two of its Nablus commanders had been encircled in a house by Israeli troops, triggering a clash that drew in other gunmen. Explosions sounded and local youths pelted armoured troop transports with rocks.
Amateur video footage appeared to show Israeli troops operating in downtown Nablus, and army vehicles firing tear gas canisters.
Intensified Israeli raids, increasing Palestinian street attacks
Nablus and nearby Jenin have been a focus of raids that Israel has intensified over the last year following a spate of lethal Palestinian street attacks in its cities.
At least 57 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed in 2023, the Palestinian health ministry said.
“We condemn the occupation’s raid into Nablus and we call for an end to the continued attacks against our people,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas, another Palestinian militant group that sometimes fights alongside Islamic Jihad, hinted at possible reprisals from the Gaza Strip, a territory that it controls.
“The resistance in Gaza is monitoring the escalating crimes conducted by the enemy against our people in the occupied West Bank and is running out of patience,” Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Hamas armed wing, said on Telegram.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are sworn to Israel’s destruction but have in the past observed Egyptian-mediated truces with it.
Israel says the military raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks while the Palestinians view them as further entrenchment of Israel’s open-ended, 55-year occupation.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians seek for their hoped-for independent state.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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