Hamas fighter killed in clashes with Palestinian security

JENIN, Dec 15 (AFP): Clashes between Palestinian security forces and militants in the occupied West Bank on Saturday killed one man, a medical source told AFP, with Hamas identifying him as a fighter.

Fighting is usually rare between militants and Palestinian Authority (PA) security personnel, who exercise limited authority in the Israeli-occupied territory.

But for more than a week, the northern West Bank city of Jenin has seen intense violence, after the PA-which coordinates security matters with Israel-had arrested several militants.

The medical source, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said one body was brought to Jenin's Ibn Sina hospital on Saturday. Several wounded people, both militants and PA personnel, also arrived at the hospital, said the source.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and has presence in the West Bank too, identified the dead man as Yazid Jaaysa, saying he was a "resistance fighter".

Palestinian media said Jaaysa was a member of Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is particularly active in the Jenin area.

The city and its adjacent refugee camp are a stronghold for armed factions who present themselves as a more effective resistance to the Israeli occupation in contrast to the PA.

AFPTV footage showed armed security personnel and armoured vehicles patrolling in the northern West Bank city and close to the camp on Saturday as gunfire echoed around. Tensions have been running high since the PA's arrests of militants earlier this month.

General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the PA's security forces, said in a statement they had launched an operation on Saturday at 5:00 am (0300 GMT) in order to "recover Jenin camp... from the control of outlaws".

Rajab said militants in the camp had set fire to a car in an attempt to "detonate" it. The Islamic Jihad military wing called for Palestinians in the West Bank "to strike and declare a general mobilisation and a day of rage" in a show of support for the Jenin camp militants.

Hamas, the main rival to the Fatah party that dominates the PA, condemned the security forces in a statement, accusing them of "deliberate targeting" of fighters and people wanted by Israel.

Tensions in Jenin escalated on December 5 after armed men seized two official PA vehicles on and paraded through the camp waving flags of the Islamic Jihad group.