Tel Aviv/Ramallah, Jan 24, (dpa/GNA) – The Israeli military said on Thursday that its forces, killed two armed Palestinians in Jenin during the night, as its major campaign in the northern West Bank city enters its third day.
It said the men were confronted near Jenin, where they barricaded themselves in a building. They were killed following an exchange of fire, in which an Israeli soldier was also wounded, it reported.
The military said the two men were members of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and were wanted for their role in a bus attack that killed three Israelis in the northern West Bank in early January.
However, the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, announced that the two men were members of Hamas.
Since the deaths of the two men, Hamas has claimed responsibility for the bus attack.
The Israeli military said it had also detained several other suspects during the operation, accusing them of helping with the bus attack.
Jenin is located in the north of the occupied West Bank, and is considered a stronghold of militant Palestinians.
While violence frequently flares in the city, this is Israel’s largest operation there in years.
The already tense situation in the West Bank has intensified significantly, since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and the subsequent Gaza war.
Around 830 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations, armed clashes and extremist attacks in the West Bank since then, according to the Health Ministry in Ramallah.
There is also increased violence by radical Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians.
GNA