As Israel wages a now three-week-old war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the country has also stepped up operations against Islamist groups in the West Bank, killing scores of Palestinians and arresting hundreds.
On Friday, Israeli forces killed four people during raids in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Two of the dead were identified by militant factions as their members.
The Israeli military said that during West Bank arrest operations its troops came under attack in the city of Jenin and fired back, killing Ayser al-Amar of the Islamic Jihad faction.
Islamic Jihad confirmed al-Amar belonged to the group. Hamas said one of its members, Jawad al-Turki, was killed during the Jenin fighting.
WAFA named the two men, another Palestinian killed in Jenin and a fourth man in the West Bank town of Qalqiya, saying their deaths took the number of West Bank Palestinians killed since the Hamas-Israel conflict broke out to 110, with more than 1,900 people injured.
- Reuters
