Israeli forces kill two gunmen in W.Bank conflict, strike boat off Gaza

Israeli forces killed two Palestinian fighters in a pre-dawn conflict within the occupied West Bank on Sunday and, off the coast of the Gaza Strip, attacked a fishing boat accused of smuggling in Hamas provides from Egypt after its two crewmen escaped.

The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant group claimed the 2 Palestinians slain at a home in Nablus as its members. The Palestinian Health Ministry mentioned six others had been wounded.

Israeli safety forces on an obvious arrest raid exterior the home of a wished suspect got here below hearth by gunmen and “responded with live fire and other means until neutralising the terrorists inside the house and on its roof,” police mentioned.

A neighbour, Naser Estitya, 60, mentioned he heard gunshots from inside the home earlier than the Israelis fired on the home. “They were calling the name of one person, asking him to surrender,” he mentioned.

Photos from the scene confirmed a part of the wall on the prime flooring had been destroyed.

“Another crime committed by the occupation forces in the old city of #Nablus, where martyrs have fallen and many wounded,” Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, mentioned on Twitter. “We strongly condemn this crime, and we hold the occupation responsibility for its repercussions.”

U.S.-brokered peace talks geared toward establishing a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza collapsed in 2014 and have proven no signal of revival.

Israeli forces have stepped up raids in current months within the West Bank after males from the realm carried out lethal avenue assaults in Israel. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority usually condemns such incursions.

Separately, the Palestinian fishermen’s union mentioned two crew members dove into Mediterranean waters and swam to security earlier than the Israeli navy fired on their boat. An image circulated on social media confirmed black smoke rising near the Gaza coast.

A navy spokesperson mentioned the vessel had come from Egypt and strayed from Israel’s maritime cordon on Gaza, which is dominated by Hamas Islamists. The navy fired on the boat after it didn’t heed orders to cease, the navy mentioned, including that it carried unspecified provides for Hamas.

Nizar Ayyash, chairman of the fishermen union, described the 2 crewmen as fishermen, telling Reuters: “The boat was completely burnt and destroyed, I think it may have sunk but fishermen on board jumped and swam to the shore. It wasn’t the first time they made such allegations and at the end these allegations proved baseless.”