An Israeli military source reported that Israeli soldiers shot and killed, on Wednesday evening, one resistance fighter and injured two residents, during clashes which erupted in Qabatia town, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The fighter was identified as Rafat Mousa Turkman, 21. Turkman was wanted by the Israeli security for his activities with his Palestinian resistance and membership of the Al Aqsa brigades, the military wing of Fateh.
The Palestinian News Agency, WAFA, reported that twenty military vehicles and under-cover military unites, supported by military apaches, invaded Qabatia and broke into dozens of homes before killing Turkman.
Army claims that soldiers shot and killed Rafat after he and other armed men opened fire at an Israeli military force operating in Qabatia.
Earlier on Wednesday one Israeli soldier was shot and killed in a gun battle which erupted between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian resistance fighters near the West Bank city of Jenin.
Soldiers were operating in Jenin area in an attempt to arrest members of Hamas. An Israeli military source reported that soldiers arrested one member of Hamas without any resistance, but as they took him to a military jeep several shots were fired from a far distance.
Sergeant Yonatan Evron, 20, member of the Magellan Israeli military brigade, who was killed in the shooting, is considered the first Israeli military fatality since the Israeli evacuation from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements in September 2005. Evron was shot in his head causing instant death. Soldiers conducted military searches in the area and uncovered one Kalashnikov rifle with blood stains on it. Army believes that the fighter who opened fire was hit by military fire.
