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Nablus: Israeli military vehicles and traces of devastation
Photo: Majdi Mohammed/AP
Another Israeli military operation in the West Bank has ended in deadly violence.
According to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah, at least ten Palestinians were killed and a further 102 people were injured in the city of Nablus.
Six of them are in critical condition.
A 72-year-old and a teenager were among the dead.
According to the Reuters news agency, witnesses and medical personnel confirmed the number of victims.
Among other things, two commanders of the "Islamic Jihad" group and another fighter were killed, according to Reuters.
The Israeli military only announced that an operation had taken place in the city in the morning to arrest suspects who, according to military information, are said to have planned and partially carried out attacks.
Nablus is considered a stronghold of militant Palestinians.
According to the military, the soldiers came under heavy fire during the access.
This was followed by gunfire, which killed all three suspects.
Ammunition and weapons were confiscated from the building where they were holed up.
The soldiers reportedly surrounded a house in Nablus during the raid.
The building was completely destroyed in the fighting, bullets fell in several shops.
This is said to have led to further clashes with militant Palestinians.
Eyewitnesses reported explosions and shots in the city.
Photos showed, among other things, burning barricades.
Abbas condemns renewed raid
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the raid.
"We call for an end to the ongoing attacks on our people," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh.
A spokesman for the Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, said after the raid: "The patience of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza is running out."
The militant "Islamic Jihad" also announced "an answer to the brutal aggression" in Gaza.
Both Palestinian organizations are also active in the West Bank.
Increasing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians
The security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories has long been extremely tense.
Since the beginning of the year, nine Israelis and one Ukrainian have been killed in attacks by Palestinians.
In the same period, 58 Palestinians lost their lives - they were shot in confrontations with the Israeli army or after their own attacks.
There are also repeated reports of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
The conflict was recently further fueled by Israel's new, extreme right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The latter had recently announced that it would subsequently legalize several settlements that had been built in the West Bank in violation of international law and without the permission of the Israeli government.
The UN Security Council also condemned this move on Monday.
Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
More than 475,000 Israeli settlers live there today.
The Palestinians claim the territories for an independent state of Palestine with the Arab-influenced eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital.
Nationalists around Netanyahu want to expand Israeli territory
Religious fundamentalists and ultranationalists are represented in Netanyahu's cabinet, which has been in office since December. They are calling for Israeli territory to be expanded into the West Bank.
The United States and other Western countries see this as a threat to the two-state solution, which they believe could end the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
fek/dpa/AP/Reuters