Six Palestinians were wounded, two of them seriously, by Israeli soldiers during a heavy exchange of fire in the Old City of Nablus this afternoon.
According to witnesses, the soldiers came under fire after entering a house in the Casbah or market area in the re-occupied northern West Bank town, and answered with shots of their own.
Israeli tanks posted near the downtown area then fired a rocket at a house where the Palestinian gunmen had taken cover, the sources said.
Two of the Palestinians, aged 18 and 23, were badly wounded, hospital sources said. Palestinian witnesses claimed all the wounded were civilians from the area who were not involved in the fighting.
Since it re-invaded most of the West Bank on June 19th, the Israeli army has imposed a systematic clamp-down on Palestinian militants.
It has also tried to deter future attackers by rounding up their relatives, destroying their houses and threatening them with deportation to the Gaza Strip.
Since the start of the month, Israel has destroyed some 30 houses in the Palestinian territories which it believes were used by militants.
The policy, which Israel claims is to dissuade attackers, has been slammed by critics who have described it as a form of collective punishment.
AFP