Tel Aviv/Ramallah, May 4, (dpa/GNA) - Three members of the militant Palestinian organization Hamas were killed during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli intelligence said Thursday.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, confirmed that three of its members were killed in the raid, saying they had been responsible for an attack last month in which three Israeli-British citizens were killed.
The men had been hiding in a flat in the Old City of Nablus, Israel’s domestic intelligence service Shin Bet said. Following intelligence information on the suspects where-abouts, Shin Bet fighters and soldiers entered the flat. A third man, an accomplice of the two Hamas assassins, was also killed in an exchange of fire, it said.
Hamas in a statement called the men “heroes of the resistance” and said that it would respond to the “criminal assassination and avenge the blood of the martyrs.”
Palestinian television reported that Israeli security forces had been dressed as Arabs when they entered the city. Afterwards, dozens of vehicles arrived as reinforcement, it said.
The building where the men were hiding was attacked with rockets and destroyed, according to the report, adding it was therefore difficult to identify the bodies because of the serious wounds they sustained.
The security situation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories has been extremely tense for months, with repeated clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli military in the West Bank.
The army has been carrying out more raids there since a series of attacks.
Since the beginning of the year, 102 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations, confrontations or after attacks of their own. In the same period, 17 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian were killed in attacks.
Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem, among other territories, during the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians claim the territories for their own state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
GNA