Two Palestinians have been killed and 15 injured during an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say.
The Israeli military said its troops responded to fire from Palestinian gunmen as they apprehended “terrorist suspects”. One soldier was injured.
The raid came after a man from a nearby village killed five people in Israel.
Elsewhere in the West Bank on Thursday, an Israeli was stabbed and wounded by a Palestinian, who was then shot dead.
A total of 11 people have been killed in three attacks in Israel over the past two weeks, raising fears of what the country’s prime minister has called “a wave of murderous terrorism”.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said soldiers and Border Police officers entered Jenin early on Thursday to make several arrests, including those of two people suspected of helping a local Palestinian man who shot dead five people in a suburb of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening.
“Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the soldiers, who responded with fire. One IDF soldier was injured and evacuated to a hospital for medical attention,” the military tweeted.
The Palestinian health ministry said two young Palestinians – Sanad Abu Atiyeh, 17, and Yazid Saadi, 23 – died after being brought to local hospitals. Three of the injured Palestinians were reported to be in a critical condition, the ministry added.
In a separate incident, an Israeli civilian was stabbed and wounded by a Palestinian on a bus in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, in the southern West Bank, the Israeli military said.
“Another civilian on the bus operated to thwart the attack and neutralised the terrorist,” it added.
Israeli media reported that the injured civilian was a 28-year-old man and that he was in a serious condition in hospital after being stabbed in the upper body with a screwdriver. The Palestinian – identified as Nidal Jumaa Jaafr, 30, from the town of Tarqumiyah – was shot and killed, they said.