RAMALLAH, West Bank – Three Palestinians were killed in a shootout with Israeli security forces who entered a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
One of the dead men was unarmed, according to Palestinian health and security officials, who said several Palestinian gunmen were also wounded.
According to a spokesman for the Palestinian Fatah movement, the violence that broke out when Israeli security officers entered the town of Nablus was discovered by security personnel and Palestinian militiamen.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating in Nablus but gave no further details.
Nablus has been at the center of violence since Israel began a crackdown in the West Bank in March in response to a series of Palestinian attacks in Israel.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, said that Abbas’s office had reached out to the United States to ask for its help in ending the Israeli campaign.
“All of this will have dangerous and destructive consequences,” Abu Rudeineh told Palestine TV.
