JAKARTA - Israeli forces stormed a Palestinian village near Jenin City in the West Bank on Thursday, killing three Islamist Jihad militants they said were suspected of carrying out a shooting attack in the area.
Islamist jihad claims three fighters, who according to the Israeli military are suspected of carrying out several shooting attacks in Jaba Village, southwest Jenin, as well as in the Homesh area, a nearby settlement post that was evacuated in 2005, are now home to a religious school.
The incident occurred on the same day US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Israel, where he plans to discuss escalating violence in the West Bank.
In Jaba, residents said they heard intense gunfire in the morning and saw large Israeli troops in the village, where the bloody car debris where the gunmen were killed remained on the road.
An Israeli statement said gunmen opened fire from their cars when Israeli forces entered the area.
Jaba, where two armed men of Islamic Jihad were killed in January, was inhabited by many armed militants from different factions. As mourners gathered for the funeral of three people killed on Thursday, fighters said the raids would not deter them.
"Day after day, more men from Jaba and neighboring villages joined us," said a gunman and masked, as dozens of other militants prepare to take part in the funeral march.
Thousands of mourners, some carrying Palestinian flags and banners of key factions, Hamas, Jihad Islam and Fatah shouting revenge, joined the funeral of their three, as gunmen opened fire into the air.
Meanwhile, the police confiscated two rifles and other weapons as well as explosives and arrested three other suspects. According to Noaman Khalileya, the owner of a local workshop near the scene. Security forces also confiscated his CCTV camera and deleted the image on his cell phone.
The operation comes days after Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in Jenin, killing six Palestinian gunmen, including a member of Hamas who allegedly killed two brothers from a Jewish settlement near the Palestinian Village of Huwara, West Bank on February 26.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said a 14-year-old boy, who was injured in a shootout in Jenin during an Israeli attack, had died from his injuries.
In a statement to the Voice of Palestine radio, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman, accused Israel of launching a "full-scale war" against Palestine.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced it had suspended its security cooperation agreement with Israel in January following an attack on Jenin that killed nine Palestinians.
Separately, the Hamas group, which controls the blockaded Gaza Strip but also has fighters in the West Bank, said PA security forces arrested several members of the group overnight in Nablus City, West Bank, after they took part in a shooting funeral parade in Huwara the day before.
"Such behavior only serves the Zionist occupation," they criticized in a statement.
Israel's troops have been carrying out attacks nearly every day in the West Bank for months, after a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians in Israel last year.
They have made thousands of arrests and killed more than 200 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians. During the same period, more than 40 Israelis were killed in attacks by Palestinians.
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