Palestinian killed during Israeli military operation in West Bank

Alsharq Tribune-Ahmed Essam 

 A Palestinian man was killed on Monday evening during an exchange of fire with Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian sources said.

Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that Israeli forces killed Abdel-Raouf Shatyeh, a man Israel had been pursuing for more than a year and a half over alleged involvement in a vehicular attack that killed two soldiers.

The sources said Israeli forces surrounded a house on Amman Street in eastern Nablus, where heavy gunfire was heard before flames were seen rising from an apartment hit by shoulder-fired projectiles.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it received a report of an injured person inside the apartment, but its medical crews were prevented by Israeli forces from reaching the scene. The PRCS later said locals informed them that the person had been killed by the army.

The sources noted that the raid was accompanied by a wave of arrests targeting several men in different neighborhoods of the city.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Monday evening that, as part of a "counterterrorism operation" in eastern Nablus, "an exchange of fire is currently underway between the forces and a terrorist in the area."

Israel often describes such raids in the West Bank as "counterterrorism operations" targeting individuals linked to Palestinian armed groups.