Israeli troops kill three Palestinians in W. Bank

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers killed three Palestinians earlier on Thursday in two separate incidents in the West Bank, local daily Ha'aretz reported.

According to the report, two members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, were killed during an Israeli predawn raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Israeli army troops with backup of jeeps and bulldozers clashed with a group of Palestinian gunmen in the old city of Nablus, shooting dead the two militants, said the report.

It added that the troops also discovered a Fatah weapons lab in the area and safely detonated a 5-kg explosive device which was found in the lab.

Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed another killing of a Palestinian who tried to infiltrate Israel through the security fence near the West Bank's Qalandiyah refugee camp later Thursday morning.

The Israeli army also shot and moderately injured a 35-year-old Palestinian man near the Gaza security fence.

The IDF claimed that they identified a man sabotaging the fence in the northern Gaza Strip, and shot him in the legs after he ignored warning of leaving the area.

The IDF has mounted its operations in the West Bank after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed three Israelis in Israel's southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat on Monday.

The bombing was claimed by both Islamic Jihad (Holy War) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

In the wake of Eilat suicide bombing, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz instructed security forces to step up operations against the terror infrastructure.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to maintain the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, and would not respond to Monday's suicide bombing in Eilat with a broad military offensive.

Source: Xinhua