JERUSALEM – Israeli soldiers, on the hunt for Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants in the West Bank town of Nablus, were involved in a series of bloody clashes yesterday that left four Palestinians dead, Israeli military officials said.
Three Palestinians were shot and killed yesterday morning after Israeli commandos, searching for radicals in the regions, were met by dozens of attackers, who began shooting, throwing rocks and launching Molotov cocktails at them.
It was the most violent confrontation in Nablus in the past two weeks.
The battle left one Palestinian dead after opening fire with a pistol. Another was shot as he threw rocks from the top of a building and a third was blasted while readying to hurl a Molotov cocktail, a top Israeli military official said.
For almost the past two weeks, Israeli military forces have been looking for terrorists in Nablus after Israeli stopped 18 suicide bombing attacks, 13 of which were to be inside Israeli, officials said.
Palestinian witnesses disputed the official Israeli account of the battle, saying the Israelis killed one attacker and two bystanders. The witnesses said one of the dead was 15-year-old Amjed el-Masri, who was innocently watching troops pass.
Later in the day, Israeli troops said they shot at two armed men who strayed from el-Masri’s funeral procession and walked toward them. The soldiers killed one and wounded three other people.
Palestinians claimed the men were not carrying any weapons, and the Israelis shot a 17-year-old pallbearer in the head as he was carrying the coffin of his cousin.
The latest shootings could help unravel an Egyptian attempt to negotiate a cease-fire after 39 months of Mideast violence.
Additional reporting by Dan Kadison and Post Wire Services