Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces on Sunday shot dead three Palestinian gunmen who fired on troops in the occupied West Bank, the military said, in a new incident after a year of violence in the area.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, identified the men as members of the group.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said they were killed by Israeli fire near the city of Nablus and identified them as Jihad Mohammed al-Shami, 24, Uday Othman al-Shami, 22, and Mohammed Raed Dabeek, 18 years old.

The military said it confiscated three M16 rifles from militants after the shooting and one man surrendered and was arrested.

The deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed so far this year to 80, after Israel stepped up raids to make arrests in the West Bank. A series of Palestinian attacks left 14 dead in 2023.

Sunday’s violence followed another Israeli military raid last week in the West Bank town of Jaba, which killed three Palestinian militants. Hours later, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a busy Tel Aviv avenue at the start of the Israeli weekend, injuring three people before being shot dead.

It is one of the worst waves of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank for several years. It began last spring after a series of Palestinian attacks on Israelis sparked near-night raids by Israeli forces on West Bank towns.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem last year, the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to prominent Israeli rights group B’Tselem. During the same period, 30 people were killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

The army says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But young people who threw stones to protest the incursions and others who did not participate in the altercations also died.

Israel says the raids are crucial to dismantling militant networks and preventing future attacks. But the attacks seem to be intensifying rather than calming down.

Palestinians see the raids as a tightening of Israel’s 55-year occupation of land they claim for a future state.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians claim these territories to form an independent state.