Nine Palestinians were killed in armed clashes with the Israeli army in Jenin in the northern West Bank.
This was confirmed by the local Ministry of Health which also speaks of 20 injured, 4 of which are serious.
Among the dead is also an elderly woman.
"A massacre carried out by the Israeli occupation government in international silence", was the reply of Nabil Abu Rudeinah, spokesman for President Abu Mazen.
"Incapacity and international silence - added Abu Rudeinah - encourage the occupation government to commit massacres against our people in front of the world".
The Israeli military added that it had conducted a "counter-terrorism operation" aimed at capturing "an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell heavily involved in the planning and execution of multiple terrorist attacks, including shootings against Israeli military and civilians."
In a statement from the military spokesman, the army also states that it is aware that during the firefights that took place today in Jenin "a Palestinian civilian was also shot. The circumstances of this episode are now ascertained".
In reconstructing the operation, the army specified, among other things, that it had also discovered two bombs ready for use inside a building where Palestinian militiamen were barricaded.
They were detonated by army bomb squad.
Israeli forces were not injured, the army said.
US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken
will travel to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt next week to call for an end to the violence.
This was announced by US State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Abu Mazen and "underline the urgent need for the parties to take steps to reduce tensions in order to end the cycle of violence that has claimed too many innocent lives," reads the statement. a note.
Israel "will pay the price for the Jenin massacre".
This was stated by the number two of Hamas, and responsible for the organization in the West Bank, Saleh al-Arouri, adding, quoted by the media: "Our resistance will not break and the answer will come soon".
Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman Tariq Salmi also argued that "the resistance is everywhere, ready and willing for the next confrontation."
