(JTA) — An Israeli shooting raid in the West Bank city of Nablus drew gunfire from Palestinian militants and ended with the death of at least 10 Palestinians, reports said. The dead included a 72-year old and a 16-year-old.
The raid comes amid escalating violence in Israel and the West Bank. Palestinian terror attacks in Jerusalem have killed 10 civilians, including three children, and Israeli military raids in the West Bank have killed dozens, including a number of children. Israel says the Palestinian casualties are almost entirely militants.
Israeli troops raided the northern West Bank city to capture or kill two members of a group called Lion’s Den, established last year in the West Bank as Israeli retaliatory raids following a series of terrorist attacks intensified, Haaretz reported. The two men were wanted for attacks on Jewish settlements and for the killing of at least one Israeli soldier.
The troops destroyed the building where the two men were hiding, and the army identified their bodies afterward. A statement from the Israel Defense Forces said that Israeli troops encountered live fire as they conducted the raid, and responded in kind.
Palestinian first responders said that at least another eight people were killed, identifying a number of them. They said 102 people were wounded by gunfire and dozens more by tear gas.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror group, vowed revenge following the raid on Wednesday. Haaretz quoted Islamic Jihad pledging retaliation “at any moment and from everywhere.” Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip and is designated as a terror group by the U.S. and Israel, did not explicitly promise revenge but said it was “impatient.”
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