RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed a Palestinian militant in a clash in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade armed group said.
The Israeli military said that while operating in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, the scene of frequent army raids and fatal clashes over the past 15 months, a Palestinian suspect fired at its troops who shot back.
The military said “hits were identified” and the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed one man was killed.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed group associated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, claimed the fighter as a member.
U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem broke down in 2014 and show no sign of resumption.
Violence has worsened since last year in the West Bank, territory which Israel captured in the 1967 war and where Palestinians have limited self-rule.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Ali Swafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
