Israeli troops kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank gun battle

Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants in a firefight within the occupied West Financial institution early Saturday, police mentioned, elevating fears of additional escalation of violence through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Israeli media mentioned 4 members of a police counter-terrorism unit of the Israeli police had been wounded, one among them severely. The troops got here underneath hearth as they tried to arrest suspected militants within the northern West Financial institution.

Tensions have soared in current days after Palestinian assailants killed 11 Israelis in separate assaults throughout the nation. Saturday marks the beginning of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, prayer and spiritual devotion for a whole lot of tens of millions of Muslims around the globe. Within the Israeli-Palestinian battle, Ramadan has typically been a interval of elevated friction and confrontation.

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The Israeli police mentioned the three militants had been members of a cell that was concerned in current assaults towards Israeli forces and had been planning one other assault that was thwarted throughout early Saturday’s joint operation with the navy and intelligence.

Reside movies by witnesses on social media confirmed a crowed of Palestinians inspecting the scene of the clashes close to town of Jenin after the Israeli troops withdrew. The road was coated with blood stains and the lads chanted slogans calling for revenge.

Palestine TV reported that Israeli forces seized the our bodies of the militants.

In response to the current Palestinian assaults, extra Israeli forces had been despatched to the West Financial institution in current days for elevated searches, patrols and arrest raids.

With Saturdays deaths, seven Palestinians had been killed over three days, together with two in a gun battle Thursday and one after he stabbed and wounded an Israeli on a bus within the West Financial institution.

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On Friday, a Palestinian man was killed by troops within the West Financial institution metropolis of Hebron, throughout clashes that erupted after mosque prayers. The Israeli navy mentioned its forces shot a Palestinian who threw a firebomb at them.

A number of hundred Jewish settlers dwell underneath heavy navy safety within the coronary heart of Hebron, a metropolis of greater than 200,000 Palestinians and residential to a serious holy website sacred to Jews and Muslims.

Additionally Friday, the Palestinian Pink Crescent emergency service mentioned 36 Palestinians had been damage in weekly confrontations with Israeli forces elsewhere within the West Financial institution. Protesters typically throw rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops who use tear fuel, rubber-bullets and dwell hearth. Thirty-three of the injured had been struck by rubber bullets and three by dwell rounds Friday, the Pink Crescent mentioned.

On the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, the third holiest website in Islam, authorities mentioned greater than 30,000 folks attended Friday prayers on the eve of Ramadan. There have been no experiences of protests or violence.

Muslim worshippers collect for Friday prayers, subsequent to the Dome of the Rock Mosque within the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s outdated metropolis, Friday, April 1, 2022. 
(AP Picture/Mahmoud Illean)

The hilltop on which the mosque is situated is the holiest website for Jews, who consult with it because the Temple Mount, and it has been a frequent flashpoint within the century-old battle.

Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders have held a flurry of talks in current weeks, and Israel has made a collection of goodwill gestures, all aimed toward calming tensions forward of Ramadan.

They hope to keep away from a repeat of final 12 months, when protests and clashes in Jerusalem throughout Ramadan ignited an 11-day Gaza conflict and Jewish-Arab violence in Israel’s combined cities.