An officer in the Israel Defense Forces and two Palestinian gunmen – including a member of the Palestinian Authority security services – were killed in the early hours of Wednesday morning in a gun battle near the West Bank city of Jenin, the Israeli military said.
According to Israeli media reports, an initial investigation shows that the Palestinian gunmen were spotted close to the seam line between Israel and the West Bank a little over two hours before the incident occurred but were not identified as armed at the time and therefore were not targeted by Israeli troops.
When troops later tried to arrest the pair, the Palestinians opened fire, killing the officer.
“Unfortunately, last night we lost an IDF officer in an operational activity against Palestinian terrorist operatives. I share in the grief of the officer’s family and spouse,” said IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi on Wednesday.
The two Palestinians were named as PA security officer Ahmed Abed and Abdul Rahman Abed, both from the Jenin area.