Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in West Bank raid amid surge in violence

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians on December 8 in their latest deadly raid on the flashpoint city of Jenin, Palestinian health officials said, as violence surges in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces have made near-daily raids across the territory in recent months, many of them deadly, following a series of lethal attacks on Israelis, France 24 reports.

The Palestinian health ministry said three people were killed "by bullets from the Israeli occupation during its aggression in Jenin at dawn today".

The Israeli military said troops entered Jenin to detain people "suspected of involvement in terrorist activity".

"The soldiers operated while being targeted with direct fire and responded with live fire," the army said in a statement.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said their fighters were engaged in "fierce clashes" with Israeli forces in Jenin.

Jenin's Ibn Sina hospital identified the dead as Atta Shalabi, Sidqi Zakarneh and Tariq Damej.

The Israeli army said it had carried out multiple operations across the West Bank overnight to arrest wanted suspects in cities including Bethlehem and Ramallah.

Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank are nominally under the control of the Palestinian Authority and its security forces.

International alarm

A surge in bloodshed this year has seen at least 150 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed across Israel and the West Bank.

The toll includes more than 40 Palestinians killed during Israeli operations in the Jenin area, among them children as young as 12 and veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as well as militants.

The situation has alarmed the international community.

The European Union said Saturday it was "greatly concerned about the increasing level of violence".

A US State Department spokesman called "for all parties to do everything in their power to de-escalate the situation".

Israel has occupied the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group which rules Gaza, described the latest killings in the West Bank as "cowardly assassinations" by Israeli forces.

"We call on the masses of our people in the West Bank and the revolutionary youth to escalate the resistance" against the Israeli occupation.

Gaza was hit by three days of fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in August in which 49 Palestinians were killed.