Israeli troops kill nine in Jenin clash with Palestinian gunmen, medics say

Agencies | Jenin                              

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Israeli commandos killed nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, and wounded 12 others during clashes with gunmen yesterday in a flashpoint town in the occupied West Bank, witnesses and medics said.

The Israeli military said it sent special forces into Jenin to detain members of the Islamic Jihad armed group suspected of having carried out and planning "multiple major attacks", shooting several of them after they opened fire.

The death toll - the highest in Jenin in years - drew a warning from Islamic Jihad that its truce with Israel, called after a brief exchange of fire across the Gaza Strip border last year, could be in danger. There were no Israeli casualties.

At least one Palestinian was detained during the raid, the military statement said. Jenin is an area of the northern West Bank where Israel has intensified raids over the past year after local men carried out street attacks in its cities. The Palestinian health ministry described the nine fatalities in Jenin as an elderly woman and eight men.

There were no further details immediately available on their identities. According to the ministry, at least 29 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since Jan. 1.