Israeli troops shot dead three Palestinian gunmen in raids on Thursday, widening an offensive against militants despite a halt to rocket salvoes from Gaza after Israel's withdrawal.
After the pre-dawn violence, thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank voted in the final phase of municipal elections seen as a test of strength for the Islamist Hamas movement before a parliamentary election in January.
The rocket fire abated on Tuesday in response to pleas from the Palestinian public for calm in the Gaza Strip to enable reconstruction after 38 years of Israeli occupation.
But Israel pushed ahead with military action in spite of US appeals for restraint, Palestinian police moves to enforce a ban on public display of weapons in Gaza and Palestinian insistence that militants were once again abiding by a truce.
Israeli troops shot dead a wanted member of the mainstream Fatah movement during a raid in the northern West Bank town of Jenin. An army spokesman said the gunman opened fire on troops first.
The army also said soldiers killed two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who fired at soldiers trying to arrest them in the nearby village of Burqin.
Local witnesses said the two, identified earlier as Islamic Jihad gunmen, were shot while hiding in an olive tree.
Israeli missiles and artillery shells have pounded parts of Gaza since Friday, destroying bridges and levelling buildings said by Israel to have been used by rocket crews, a few weeks after the last Israeli settler and soldier left the territory.
Israel has also arrested hundreds of suspected militants in raids in the occupied West Bank, where large settlements remain.
"We condemn such actions and demand the Israelis stop these acts especially given the fact that all the factions here have recommitted to calm and to ending displays of weaponry in the streets," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in Gaza City.
Comments
Comments are closed.