Authorities reported that at least three Palestinians were killed in a large-scale firefight that broke out Monday in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin between Israeli armed forces and Palestinian militants.
One of the three fatalities, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, was a teenager, and the conflicts also left more than two dozen people injured.
According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), attack helicopters from the Israeli Air Force began firing over Jenin to assist Israeli troops in leaving the city.
It was the first time since the Second Intifada that Israeli helicopters had opened fire while evacuating wounded troops, Israel Army Radio reported. The Second Intifada – a major Palestinian uprising – ended in 2005.
Army Radio said the wounded Israeli soldiers had been successfully evacuated.
The Jenin Brigade, a locally based militant group, said its fighters had fired at an Israeli helicopter, forcing it to retreat, and said they had managed to immobilize Israeli military vehicles with gunfire and ambushes.
The firefight was still ongoing as of 10:45 a.m local time (3:45 a.m. ET), doctors speaking on Palestine TV said.
The Palestinians killed included two men in their 20s: Khalid Azam Asa’asa, 21, and Qasam Faisal Abu Seriya, 29, and teenager Ahmed Youssef Saqer, who was 15, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, citing hospitals in Jenin.
Some 31 Palestinian people were wounded, including a girl with a critical head injury, the ministry said.
The IDF and Border Police said they were carrying out an operation to arrest two wanted suspects in Jenin when “a massive exchange of fire took place.”
They were attacked with gunfire and hurled explosive devices and responded with live fire, hitting people, the IDF said.
An IDF vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device on the way out, video from the scene showed.