Israel's military said Sunday that two soldiers were seriously injured in shootouts with Palestinian gunmen during a West Bank raid in which Israeli forces killed five Palestinians.
Five armed Palestinians were killed during the overnight crackdown to arrest suspects affiliated with a Hamas cell, according to a statement issued by the Israeli military.
The army wrote on Twitter that an officer and a combatant soldier sustained serious wounds during a clash with a Palestinian militant in the village of Burqin in northern West Bank.
According to the army, the goal of the raid was to arrest Hamas operatives involved in a cell that planned to carry out an attack against Israelis.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, while en route to the UN General Assembly in New York, received an update on the overnight incident, his office said in a statement.
According to Bennett, the forces took action against Hamas operatives "who were about to carry out terrorist attacks in real-time," adding that "the soldiers and commanders in the field acted as expected."
In response to the killing, Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanua warned in a statement the deaths of the Palestinians "will fuel the Palestinian protest and the struggle by all means."
On Friday, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man during clashes between protesters and Israeli forces in Beita, a town in the northern West Bank.
The West Bank was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel has controlled these territories ever since, despite international criticism. (ANI/Xinhua)
( With inputs from ANI )
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