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Israeli soldier killed during West Bank arrest raid

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 November 2005, 02:09 CST

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen on Wednesday killed an Israeli soldier in a gunbattle during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said.

It was Israel's first military fatality in action since the Jewish state pulled out of the Gaza strip following 38 years of occupation in September. Israel regularly carries out arrests in the West Bank and has killed several militants during the raids.

"The soldier was killed after an Islamic Jihad operative surrendered without resistance in the northern West Bank village of Yirka. He was shot during a gunbattle afterwards and died on his way to hospital," an Israeli army spokesman told Reuters.

Over the past week, Israel has carried out numerous strikes against militants in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, killing 13 Palestinians, mostly gunmen. The northern West Bank has been a focus for military arrest raids since Israel's Gaza pullout.

The Israeli attacks followed an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in an Israeli coastal town and cross-border rocket fire by the group, which said it was avenging Israel's killing of a West Bank commander on October 24.

The incident came a day after Israel killed two Palestinian militant commanders in a missile strike in the Gaza Strip, triggering vows to "open the gates of hell" for revenge attacks against the Jewish state.

A week of bloodshed, including the killing of five Israelis in a suicide bombing last Wednesday, has deflated hopes that the

Gaza pullout in September would revive peacemaking.

Source: REUTERS

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