Israel raids Nablus, kills 3 Palestinians it says killed settlers

The Israeli army has killed at least three Palestinians and wounded four others while firing live ammunition during a raid in the northern city of Nablus.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Thursday.“The faces of two of the martyrs have been deformed completely due to the heavy fire they were hit with, making it difficult to identify them,” the ministry said.

The Israeli army and intelligence service said in a statement that two of the men killed were behind a shooting on April 7 north of Jericho, in which two settler sisters died when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle. Their mother later died of her wounds.

In the Old City of Nablus, the Palestinian Red Crescent said four people were transferred to hospital and at least 150 people suffered tear gas inhalation, including schoolchildren, during the Israeli raid.

Political factions in Nablus announced a general strike in the city on Thursday in response to the attack.The Israeli army and settlers have killed at least 107 Palestinians, 20 of them were children, so far in 2023, according to the health ministry.

The figure also includes 44-year-old Palestinian prisoner Sheikh Khader Adnan, who died on Tuesday on the 87th day of a hunger strike against his repeated arbitrary detention.

The death of Adnan, who was arrested on March 5 and was awaiting military trial, caused widespread anger and protests in the occupied West Bank and led to rocket attacks on Israel by armed resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday night, a 58-year-old Palestinian man, Hashel Mubarak, was killed in Israeli aerial attacks on the Gaza Strip, and five others were injured.