Ala Abu Srour, the local leader of the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank city of Jenin, was killed when undercover IDF troops opened fire on his car, Saturday, Palestinian security forces said. Another Islamic Jihad gunman was wounded in the incident but was in a stable condition after hospital treatment, the sources said. An Israeli military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv confirmed such an incident, saying that three gunmen had been killed.
According to the spokeswoman, Israeli soldiers and paramilitary border policemen, in a joint operation, killed all three gunmen who were travelling in a vehicle. She said the Israeli force later found two additional assault rifles and ammunition clips in the vehicle.
Israel says raids against Palestinian militants help to foil attacks against its citizens. Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, where the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas holds sway, say such operations harm chances for peacemaking.
Israel recently stopped pursuing hundreds of wanted Fatah fighters in the West Bank in a bid to boost Abbas after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
But it has carried on targeting Islamic Jihad, a group that has mounted numerous attacks against Israelis since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000 and opposes Abbas' efforts to revive peacemaking with Israel.