West Bank's Jenin sees deadliest clash in years

STORY: Israeli commandos killed at least nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, and wounded a dozen more during clashes with gunmen on Thursday (January 26) in Jenin, witnesses and medics said.

It was the highest death toll for years in the flashpoint town, which is in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian officials said seven of the dead were gunmen and the other two civilians.

U.N. and Arab mediators said they were in talks with Israel and Palestinian factions in hope of heading off further flare-ups.

Jenin is among areas of the northern West Bank that have seen intensified Israeli operations in the last year.

The Israeli military said it sent special forces into Jenin to detain members of the Islamic Jihad armed group, which it suspects of having carried out, quote, "multiple major terror attacks" in its cities.

It said it shot several members of the group after they opened fire.

No Israelis were killed.

During the three-hour clash, gunfire echoed through the camp’s cramped alleys and militants set off improvised bombs. Youths pelted army vehicles with rocks.

Islamic Jihad confirmed battling Israeli forces as they carried out the unusually deep raid into Jenin's refugee camp, a militant bastion.

Hamas said its men also took part. Both groups reject coexistence with Israel.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasem blamed the Jenin escalation on the new hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The massacre that the Israeli occupation army committed today morning in Jenin city confirms the racist, fascist and criminal face of the right-wing occupation government. This aggression in addition to the continued violations of al Aqsa mosque and the Palestinians in Israel shows that this government insists on escalating the situation. The resistance will always be ready to defend its people everywhere."

At least one Palestinian was detained during the raid, the military statement said.