Israel troops kill senior West Bank militant

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli troops shot dead a senior
Palestinian militant during a clash in the northern West Bank
on Sunday, Palestinian witnesses and the Israeli military
sources said.

They said Nehad Abu Ghanem, a leader of Islamic Jihad’s
military wing in the northern West Bank, opened fire on Israeli
special forces who cornered him as he was driving his car south
of Jenin.

Abu Ghanem, 27, was killed when Israeli troops fired back.

He was the first Islamic Jihad militant killed since Israel
killed a top leader from the group and his deputy in an air
strike in the Gaza Strip last month after militants launched
rockets into the Jewish state.

Palestinian militant groups entered into a tacit ceasefire
with Israel early this year, greatly reducing but not entirely
halting violence in the run-up to Israel’s September 12 pullout
from the Gaza Strip.

In separate violence on Sunday, Palestinian militants shot
dead three Israelis and wounded five in two drive-by ambushes
outside Jewish settlements in the West Bank.