JERUSALEM — Israeli security forces shot and killed three Palestinian men early Monday when violent clashes broke out during a raid in the Qalandia refugee camp, between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to witnesses and Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.
The raid was the deadliest episode in the West Bank in months and came less than a week after a Palestinian man was killed in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank when troops on a similar mission encountered violent protests.
The continuing arrests of Palestinians suspected of planning terrorist acts and the deadly confrontations underlined the volatility of the West Bank, even as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have embarked on a new round of talks to try to resolve the long-running conflict and establish an independent Palestinian state in the areas occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
The Israeli military said that its troops were in Qalandia to secure an operation by security forces who were seeking to arrest a resident identified by the military only as a “terror operative.”
Hundreds of residents threw rocks and various other items at the security forces and soldiers were called in to aid them. Security personnel then “resorted to using live fire in self-defense,” the military said in a statement.
Witnesses in the camp said that a unit of special forces had intended to arrest Yusuf Khatib, who was released last year from an Israeli prison. Mr. Khatib tried to flee to a neighbor’s house, the witnesses said, and residents began throwing rocks, firebombs, bricks and iron bars at the forces and the troops who arrived in Jeeps to reinforce them. Hundreds of residents then came out of their homes and joined the riot, eyewitnesses and the military said.
Initial reports in the Palestinian news media identified those killed on Monday as Robin al-Abed, Yunis Jahjouh and Jihad Asslan, all in their 20s or early 30s. At least 15 others were reported wounded.
Witnesses said that two of the dead had been participating in the riot but that one of those killed was a bystander.
“Large, violent crowds such as this, which significantly outnumber the security forces, leave no choice but to resort to live fire in self-defense,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military.
Israeli Raid on Palestinian Camp Turns Deadly
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