Israeli forces killed four Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, pursuing a half-year-long campaign of raids triggered by a series of lethal street attacks in Israel.
Commandos, some of them undercover, were sent into the town of Jenin to capture two Palestinians suspected of carrying out gun ambushes, Israeli police said. The Palestinians opened fire and set off a bomb, and were shot, the statement added.
The raid touched off clashes elsewhere in Jenin, which, along with the neighbouring city of Nablus, has been a focus of Israeli forces. Some 40 Palestinians were wounded, medics said.
The Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades factions said four of their gunmen were killed. One of them worked for the security services of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank.
"We are in great need of members of the security services," an umbrella group of local militants said in an open statement addressed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"Declare the fight, and we will be your soldiers. This enemy knows only the language of firepower."
Israel and the United States have been pressing the PA to do more to boost security. The PA accuses Israel of undermining its credibility.
"We have not hesitated to go anywhere that the Palestinian Authority has not gone to carry out arrests," Ram Ben-Barak, chairman of the Israeli parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, told Ynet Radio. "Does this create friction? Yes."
Another of the slain Jenin gunmen was the brother of a Palestinian who shot dead three people in Tel Aviv in April - among attacks that killed 19 people in Israel and triggered its "Operation Breakwater" campaign. More than 70 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed since.
US-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem collapsed in 2014, while Israel has expanded settlements in several areas. Gaza is ruled by Hamas Islamists opposed to coexistence with Israel.
Washington has sought ways of improving Palestinian conditions while addressing Israeli security concerns.
Tom Nides, US ambassador to Jerusalem, said Allenby terminal, an Israeli-run border crossing for Palestinians between the West Bankand Jordan, would as of Oct 24 expand its opening hours to a 24/7 schedule for a pilot period.
"(This) will make a real difference in people's lives!" he tweeted.
Israel’s stepped-up military activities in the West Bank follow a surge in Palestinian attacks inside Israel last spring. Israel identified one of the Palestinians killed in Wednesday’s raid as Rahman Hazam, the brother of a Palestinian gunman who attacked a bar in central Tel Aviv last April and was killed by police.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in the campaign of raids on the West Bank, making this year the deadliest in the occupied territory since 2015. The city of Jenin regularly sees Israeli arrest raids lead to gun battles with camp residents.
Most of the Palestinians killed in the recent wave of Israeli raids have been wanted militants or young men who throw stones or fire bombs at soldiers invading their towns. But some civilians, including an Al Jazeera journalist and a lawyer who inadvertently drove into a battle zone, have also been killed in the violence.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and has built more than 130 settlements across the territory that are home to nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers. The Palestinians want the West Bank, home to some 3 million Palestinians, to form the main part of their future state.
The last serious peace talks broke down more than a decade ago.
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