NABLUS, May 3: Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, triggering fighting in which a soldier, a Palestinian policeman and a Hamas fighter were killed.

The Israeli army said one officer was killed and another was seriously wounded when they came under fire as they stormed a building near Nablus’s old quarter to detain guerillas.

It said four guerillas were hiding in the building and that Israeli gunfire hit two armed Palestinians during the battle.

A Palestinian policeman and wanted Hamas guerilla were killed in the fighting, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli tanks and troops thrust into the heart of Nablus, where they cordoned off a building and soldiers began conducting house-to-house searches shortly before dawn, witnesses said. They said 15 people were detained.

“During the operation the forces arrested four wanted people suspected of planning to carry out a bombing in Israel in the next few days,” the army said in a statement.

It said its troops also located two bomb-making laboratories in the building where the wanted people were hiding and found a car loaded with weapons. Israeli forces have in recent days mounted short raids in West Bank cities they had withdrawn from after a broad military offensive launched on March 29.—Reuters