Six Killed in West Bank Gunfight as Israel Raids Nablus
Six people were killed in a gun battle in the occupied West Bank on Friday, among them four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers, after which Israel launched a wide operation around Nablus. The clash, near the village of Tell, was followed by reprisal raids by Israeli settlers that wounded seven Palestinians, according to local sources. It marks one of the deadliest days in the territory in weeks.
The Israeli military named one of the dead soldiers as Major Yuval Ezra, 27, and said it had detained suspects at a hospital in Nablus, where its chief of staff held an operational assessment. Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the wider regional war, with settler attacks and Israeli raids intensifying through the summer. Palestinian officials condemned the settler reprisals as collective punishment. The bloodshed opens a further front in a region already convulsed by the fighting with Iran and the strains on the Gaza ceasefire. Watch for further raids and international reaction.