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AT least 16 Palestinians were injured on Monday during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian medics and eyewitnesses said.
An Israeli armed force stormed the city at dawn to arrest Alla’a Zakarneh, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), eyewitnesses said.
The eyewitnesses added that clashes broke out between the Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen.
The soldiers surrounded 30-year-old Zakarneh’s house and called on him by loudspeakers to surrender, said the witnesses.
Zakarneh, a member of the PIJ armed wing, had spent two years in Israeli jails.
Saraya al-Quds, the armed wing of PIJ, said in a statement that Zakarneh exchanged fire with the Israeli soldiers until he ran out of ammunition.
Then he handed himself to the soldiers.
Dozens of Palestinian young men threw stones, and militants opened fire on the Israeli soldiers, who responded by firing teargas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition to disperse them, according to eyewitnesses.
Wesam Bakker, director of the Jenin Hospital, told Xinhua the hospital received 16 injured people.
Among them, two were in serious conditions, while the rest were moderately injured.
In a press statement, an Israeli army spokesman accused Zakarneh of being involved in a series of terrorist acts.
He said nine Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli security forces in the West Bank on Monday, adding that arms and ammunition were also found with them.
Tension in the West Bank has been mounting over the past few days after the Israeli army intensified its military actions against Palestinian militants and activists, mainly in Jenin and Nablus in the northern West Bank. (Xinhua/NAN)
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Tags: Alla’a Zakarneh Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Wesam Bakker West Bank city of Jenin Xinhua
