Sharjah24 – Reuters: Israeli troops killed at least four Hamas militants in gun battles during raids on Sunday against one of the group's cells in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli military spokesman said.
Israeli officials have long voiced concern that Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, intends to gain strength in the West Bank and challenge its rival there, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA), heightening security risks for Israel.
The incidents in the early hours of Sunday marked the most serious confrontations between Israel and Hamas in the West Bank in months and threatened to raise tensions in the territory and along the Israeli border with Gaza.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party lost control of Gaza to Hamas in internal fighting in 2007, accused Israel in a statement of "field executions against our people".
Hamas called on Palestinians in the West Bank "to escalate resistance against the occupier in all areas" in the wake of the raids. A Hamas spokesman said all the men were members of the group, which Israel and the West regard as a terrorist organisation.
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