Reuters, Jerusalem: Israeli commandos backed by a military helicopter killed four Palestinians, including a teenager, and wounded at least 29 others during a fierce clash in the occupied West Bank on Monday, local gunmen and medical officials said.
Israel's military said it had launched the raid on Jenin to detain Palestinians suspected of attacks and that troops had exchanged fire with gunmen, hitting several of them.
Video obtained by Reuters showed an explosion enveloping an armoured troop carrier as shots ring out. Another clip showed what appeared to be an Israeli helicopter launching a missile.
The military statement confirmed that a helicopter had opened fire during the clash and that one of its vehicles had been hit by a blast. It did not immediately comment on media reports that five soldiers were wounded in the latter incident.
The Palestinian health ministry said the three dead males included a 15-year-old. There was no immediate word on whether any of them were affiliated with Palestinian armed groups.
One such group, Islamic Jihad, said it was taking part in the clashes in Jenin, among areas in the northern West Bank that has seen intensified raids by Israel over the past 15 months amid a spate of Palestinian street attacks in its cities.
At least one Palestinian was detained during Monday's raid, witnesses in Jenin said.
AFP adds from Jenin, Palestinian Territories: Israeli forces on Monday killed two Palestinians and wounded more than two dozen others during a raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
"Two martyrs and 28 injured as a result of the ongoing (Israeli) aggression on Jenin," a statement from the Palestinian health ministry said, without elaborating on the identity of those killed.
Jenin's deputy governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP the Israeli forces had launched the raid at around 04:00 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.
The Israeli army did not immediately provide any information on the raid in the northern West Bank city when contacted by AFP.
An AFP photographer in Jenin confirmed that fighting was ongoing as of 08:40 am (0540 GMT).
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and its forces regularly launch incursions into Palestinian cities, which are nominally under the control of President Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority.
Since the start of the year, at least 161 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources.
The figures include combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.
