NABLUS, West Bank — Israeli forces raided a stronghold of an armed group in the occupied West Bank’s second-largest city, blowing up a bomb lab and engaging in a firefight, the military said Tuesday. Five Palestinians were killed and 20 were wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The overnight raid in the old city, or kasbah, of Nablus, was one of the deadliest in the West Bank in 2022 and comes at a time of escalating tensions.
Television footage showed flames and smoke rising in the night sky over Nablus. The army said it used shoulder-launched missiles. Local residents reported a large explosion that rocked the old city and surrounding neighborhoods.
The target of the raid was a group of Palestinian gunmen calling themselves the Lions’ Den. The group was responsible for the recent fatal shooting of an Israeli soldier and several attempted attacks, the army said.
The five men killed in the raid were in their 20s and 30s, the Health Ministry said. Several of the wounded were in serious condition, the ministry said.
Israel’s caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, confirmed that Wadie Houh, a leader of the Lion’s Den group, was killed in a shootout with Israeli troops overnight. In remarks at a conference, he said the operation was “an accurate and deadly strike at the heart of terror infrastructure trying to carry out attacks.”
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip staged a general strike in protest of Tuesday’s killings. Stores remained shuttered throughout the day in Nablus, Ramallah, Gaza City and other Palestinian cities.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, the army said troops fired at a suspect who threw an explosive at them during an arrest raid near the village of Nebi Saleh.