RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The Israeli military said it arrested a suspected militant and confiscated weapons on Friday in a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin that led to clashes with Palestinian fighters.
Israeli forces said they shot at suspects who hurled explosive devices at them. Palestine TV said the soldiers wounded two people, including a 14-year-old boy. It said the forces blocked the movement of ambulances and conducted arrests before withdrawing.
Videos circulating on social media, which Reuters could not independently verify, showed a convoy of armoured military vehicles approaching the area before a cloud of white smoke rose from an apartment building as shots rang out.
“Before afternoon prayers, the (Israeli) military and special forces positioned themselves around the refugee camp but thank God the fighters were on high alert and they managed to prevent the forces from raiding the camp,” Ata Abu Rmeileh, head of the Jenin branch of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, told Reuters.
He added that the residents of Jenin were expecting more raids in days ahead.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged this year, with frequent military raids and violence by Israeli settlers amid a spate of Palestinian attacks. More than 90 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners have been killed since January.
Israel captured the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state, in the 1967 Middle East war. It has since built large settlements there while U.S.-sponsored statehood talks have stalled.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Henriette Chacar; Editing by Nick Macfie)
