JENIN, Palestinian Territories: Three Palestinians were killed in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank early yesterday after Israeli soldiers launched an operation to arrest a militant, Palestinian officials said.
Medical and security sources said two of those killed were militants and the third was a civilian. They said 14 Palestinians were also wounded, with two in critical condition.
The Palestinian sources said soldiers entered the camp in the northern West Bank city to arrest Hamza Abu Alheja, 20, a member of the Hamas military wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, with clashes resulting in the death of Mahmud Abu Zena, 19, an Islamic Jihad militant.
A civilian named as Yazan Jabarin was also killed in the clashes, the Palestinians said, as a day of mourning and general strike were announced.
Army spokesman Peter Lerner called Abu Alheja “a ticking bomb” who took part in shooting attacks and was in “advanced stages of the preparation of further attacks”.
Lerner told reporters security forces shot Abu Alheja only after he shot and lightly wounded two Israelis while trying to escape from the building in which he was holed up. Meanwhile, “Palestinians began to shoot and throw explosive devices at the troops, and as a result we have two more killed”, Lerner added.
While there is security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Palestinians were not involved in the Jenin operation, he said.
Israeli forces had previously tried to arrest Abu Alheja in a December raid that resulted in the death of an Islamic Jihad militant.
Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said yesterday’s incident “saved lives” since it “thwarted a terror attack that had already been planned and was supposed to target Israelis”.
Around 15,000 mourners calling for Palestinian unity and vengeance, as well as an end to Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, attended a joint funeral for the three dead men at noon.
An AFP correspondent said the bodies of Abu Alheja and Abu Zena were wrapped in flags of their Hamas and Jihad movements, while Jabarin was wrapped in the flag of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party. AFP
