Four Palestinians were killed and 32 others wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, witnesses and medical sources said.

An earlier report said that three were killed.

The wounded had been taken to the main hospital in Ramallah by Palestinian ambulances, said medical sources.

Witnesses said that the Israeli troops arrested seven Palestinian militants, including a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) and three members of the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and three members of the Fatah movement now led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

The clashes came after a group of undercover Israeli soldiers surrounded a building in central Ramallah, where the senior Jihad leader wanted by Israel for alleged involvement in anti-Israel attacks was hiding, said the witnesses.

Upon learning the Israeli siege, Palestinian militants in Ramallah rushed to the building and clashed with the Israeli soldiers who called in about a dozen Israeli military vehicles for reinforcement, the witnesses added.

Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli army raided Ramallah in an effort to arrest Jihad leader Mohamed al-Shoubaki.

Al-Shoubaki, Jihad leader in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilia, was arrested by Israeli troops following the clashes, said the Palestinian security sources.

Palestinian President Abbas was in the city, where the headquarters of the Palestinian National Authority is located, when the clashes broke out.

In addition, dozens of Palestinian young men and women threw stones at the Israeli soldiers during their withdrawal, who then responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition, said the witnesses.

Source: Xinhua