Four Palestinians killed as Israel deploys helicopters in West Bank

Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank killed four Palestinians including a militant on Monday, in a raid that saw seven Israeli security personnel wounded and rare helicopter fire.

The sound of gunfire was heard across Jenin as wounded Palestinians continued to arrive by ambulance at the northern West Bank city’s Ibn Sina hospital into the early afternoon, an AFP journalist said.

The Palestinian health ministry said four people had been killed and at least 62 others were wounded in the violence.

One of those killed was a teenager, 15-year-old Ahmed Saqer, the ministry said in a statement.

It named two of the other fatalities Khaled Assassa, 21, and Qassam Abu Saria, 29.

In a statement, Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed Abu Saria as a fighter for the militant group.

Jenin’s deputy governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP the Israeli forces had launched the raid at around 4:00 am (0100 GMT).

“The army stormed the (Jenin refugee) camp and the city after the dawn prayer in large numbers, and there was intense gunfire,” he said. An AFP journalist confirmed fighting was still ongoing as of 2:25 pm (1125 GMT).

Deteriorating situation

The Israeli army said an armoured vehicle had been hit by a “very unusual and dramatic” explosive device at around 7:10 am (0410 GMT), during “routine activity” to arrest two “wanted suspects” -- one affiliated with Islamist movement Hamas and the other with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“We had five Israeli border police guys wounded, and two soldiers also lightly wounded,” army spokesman Richard Hecht said. “From that point, we had to extract our injured.”

“It will take a few hours, it’s going to be pretty harsh, there is a lot of fire,” he added in the early afternoon.

The army said that an Apache helicopter had fired missiles in support of the soldiers, a rare measure in the West Bank.

An AFP photographer in Jenin witnessed a helicopter fire two missiles as well as a Palestinian journalist who had been injured in the fighting.

A Palestinian intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity it was the first time since 2002 -- during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising -- that the Israeli army has fired missiles from an aircraft during a raid in Jenin.

The United Nations rights chief, Volker Turk, said he was “extremely worried by the deteriorating situation”.