Two Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli troops near the northern West Bank city of Jenin overnight Monday.
Israeli forces entered the village of Kafr Dan to raze the homes of two Palestinian terrorists who killed Major Bar Falah, 30, in a shootout near the Jalameh checkpoint in September.
The home of terrorist Ahmed Abed in Kafr Dan, West Bank demolished by the IDF
(Video: J-Media)
During the operation, the forces came under heavy Palestinian fire and Molotov cocktails were lobbed at them and returned fire. The soldiers took no casualties.
The Palestinians later reported that two gunmen, identified as Muhammad Houshiyeh, 22, and Fouad Abed, 25, have been killed in the firefight.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group linked to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, claimed Abed as one of its operatives and said he was “killed in the line of duty, and protected the people with his blood.”
Israeli forces entering Kafr Dan
The Palestinian health ministry reported at least three Palestinians were critically injured by IDF fire.
Maj. Falah, the deputy commander of the elite Nahal reconnaissance unit, and his subordinates stopped two suspects as they approached the West Bank security barrier when they came under fire.
Falah fired back at the terrorists before being hit and collapsing due to his fatal wounds.
According to a preliminary probe into the incident, two suspects were spotted 15 meters away from the security barrier near the Palestinian village of Jalameh north of Jenin about two and a half hours before the shootout.
An IDF force that was dispatched to the scene flanked the suspects, at which point the terrorists opened fire at troops at close range. The soldiers returned fire and killed the assailants Ahmed Abed and Abdul Rahman Abed, one of whom was a member of the Palestinian Authority security services.