Israeli forces on a raid in the occupied West Bank exchanged fire on Monday with Palestinian gunmen, Israeli police said, while a Palestinian local official said at least four Palestinians were killed.
The incident occurred in the city of Jenin, where, Israeli police said in a statement, special forces disguised as Palestinians came under heavy fire from “a large number” of attackers while on a mission to detain a militant.
The undercover forces returned fire towards the terrorists and neutralized them. Israeli police said there were no Israeli casualties.
Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 Middle East war, and Palestinians seek the territory as well as the Gaza Strip for a future state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Palestinian Authority, set up under interim peace accords with Israel in the 1990’s, exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, but Israeli forces are dominant in the area, where they often carry out raids to detain suspected militants.
Asharq Al-Awsat / ABC Flash Point News 2021.