Israeli troops on Thursday killed three Palestinians wanted in connection with a deadly attack against Israelis, the Israeli military said, the latest bloodshed in a relentless wave of violence.
Forces entered the heart of the flashpoint city of Nablus in the early morning hours and raided an apartment where the men were located, according to a statement from the military. Troops and the suspects exchanged fire and the three men were killed.
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The military accuses the men of being behind an attack last month on a car near a Jewish West Bank settlement that killed a British-Israeli mother and two of her daughters. It said two of the men, identified as Hassan Katnani, Maed Mitsri, were members of the Hamas militant group. It described the third man killed, Ibrahim Hura, as a senior operative who had assisted the other suspects.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people were killed in the fighting but did not immediately identify them.
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The violence in Nablus comes at a particularly sensitive time in the region, days after a prominent Palestinian prisoner who was staging a lengthy hunger strike over his detention died in Israeli custody. His death set off a volley of rockets from militants in Gaza and airstrikes in the coastal enclave that killed one man.
The deadly attack last month on the Israeli car shocked Israelis because in an instant it reduced the Dee family from seven members to four. Hundreds of people packed the funerals and the family's father, Leo, has been a recurring figure in Israeli media, saying he bears no hatred toward the killers of his family and calling for national unity amid a deep societal rift.
Israel has been staging near-nightly arrest raids into West Bank villages, towns and cities for more than a year in an operation prompted by a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis last year. Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see the attacks as further entrenchment of Israel's 56-year, open-ended occupation of lands they seek for a future independent state.
The raids have been met by a surge in Palestinian attacks.
Some 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the raids were launched. Israel says most have been militants, but stone-throwing youth and people not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.
During that same time, nearly 50 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
