FOUR Palestinians have been killed in clashes during an Israeli raid to arrest a suspect in the occupied West Bank, local sources say.
Israeli police said undercover forces came under fire after entering Jenin refugee camp to arrest the suspect from the Islamist militant group Hamas.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said four Palestinian men were killed and that a fifth was seriously wounded.
It is one of the highest death tolls in West Bank violence for months.
The Israel Border Police said officers from an undercover unit “came under heavy fire from close range from a large number of terrorists” as they sought to arrest the suspect in the early hours of Monday.
The officers returned fire and “neutralized” the attackers, it added.
According to the Palestinian news agency Maan, the Israeli forces opened fire after setting an ambush.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the killings “an ugly crime” and warned it could lead to an escalation of violence.
An Israeli police spokesman said the bodies of two of those killed in the gun battle were in Israeli custody, while an AFP news agency journalist saw another two bodies at Jenin hospital’s mortuary.
Israel said none of its forces were injured.
The incident comes weeks after two Palestinian intelligence officers and a Palestinian suspected by Israel of carrying out attacks were killed during an undercover Israeli raid to arrest two suspects in Jenin.