NABLUS: Israeli police killed at least four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, Palestinian health authorities and Israeli security forces said.

The Palestinian health ministry reported in a statement Wednesday that “four martyrs shot by the occupation in Nablus have been transferred to Rafidia Government Hospital”.

It later said the men were aged between 31 and 43 years old.

The Palestinian Red Crescent also reported the deaths of four people, but Israeli security forces said five were killed Wednesday.

Officers from an elite police unit “killed five wanted terrorists in Nablus”, the Israeli police, army and Shin Bet domestic security service said in a joint statement.

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The statement added that among those killed was the head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade in the Balata refugee camp adjacent to the city.

It said that during a joint operation involving army and police force, coordinated by Shin Bet, police killed five armed men “who presented a danger for our forces”.

“The eliminated terrorists were involved in the planning and exporting of terrorist activity against civilians and army forces,” the statement added.

Nablus governor Ghassan Daghlas however told AFP that “the four martyrs are ordinary citizens who were among the people and were killed among the people in cold blood”.

He called the killing “a cowardly and deliberate assassination”.

He added that one man was from Balata camp, while the remaining three were from the Askar camp in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Violence has soared in the West Bank since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel in October last year.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 705 Palestinians in the West Bank since, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.

Israeli officials say at least 24 Israelis, civilians or members of the security forces, have been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinian or in Israeli military operations over the same period in the West Bank.