NABLUS, Sept 30: Israeli forces killed two Palestinian fighters and a teenager in the occupied West Bank on Friday, pressing ahead with raids against militants despite a halt to cross-border rocket salvoes from the Gaza Strip.
A week-long wave of violence has cast a shadow over Palestinian municipal elections, preliminary results of which suggested Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction had made a strong showing. Hamas also made inroads.
The flare-up has frayed a seven-month-old ceasefire and deflated hopes that Israel’s Gaza pullout might open the way for a revival of peacemaking.
Mr Abbas urged Palestinian factions to show restraint but said “the Israelis should know that these incidents cannot be tolerated”.
“These provocations and the continuation of these acts certainly have a great and grave influence on the entire calm which we are exerting all efforts in order to maintain,” Abbas told reporters outside his Gaza office on Friday. Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Fatah, said two fighters died in an army raid on Balata refugee camp in Nablus. Troops later shot dead a 13-year-old stone-thrower in nearby Askar camp, witnesses said.
The Israeli army said Palestinians fired first and troops responded after swooping on the camps before dawn to arrest militants. One soldier was slightly wounded in the raids.
