JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli forces killed three Palestinians near a village close to the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, without giving details.
According to residents quoted by Palestinian radio, Israeli forces also raided the village of Jaba, south of Jenin, surrounding a house where there was an exchange of fire and one person was arrested before the Israeli force withdrew.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military but Security Minister Itamar Ben-Givr issued a statement confirming the three dead and hailing the “precise action and the elimination of those who opened fire on our fighters”.
Hamas radio said the Israeli forces targeted a group it called the Jaba Brigade and killed its leader.
The operation came days after Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in Jenin and killed six Palestinian militant fighters, including the Hamas gunman suspected of killing two Jewish settlers in the West Bank on Feb. 26.
The Palestinian health ministry said a 14 year-old boy, wounded during the gunbattle that broke out in Jenin during the Israeli raid, had died of his wounds.
Israeli forces have conducted near daily raids across the West Bank for months, making thousands of arrests and killing more than 200 Palestinians, including both fighters and civilians. Over the same period, more than 40 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Dan Williams; writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Robert Birsel)
