Three armed Palestinians were killed this morning near Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank after they opened fire on an Israeli military post, the Israeli military said. The firefight took place at the Surra-Jit checkpoint, in an area under Israeli security control, west of Nablus. Reached by AFP, residents of Surra said they heard gunfire around 3:30 in the morning (1:30 GMT). According to Palestinian medical sources, no bodies were taken to the Nablus morgue and the Israeli army may still be in possession of the bodies.
The Israeli military reported that “gunmen opened fire” on soldiers at an army post near the Jit intersection west of Nablus, with the soldiers returning fire. “Three armed men were neutralized during the firefight and another armed man surrendered and was arrested,” the army said in a statement. The violence escalated last year but has worsened in the West Bank since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in December in a ruling coalition with ultra-Orthodox Jews and far-right allies. Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 81 Palestinian adults and children, both militants and civilians. Twelve Israeli civilians, including three children, and a policeman, as well as a Ukrainian civilian were killed in the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.