3 Israeli Soldiers Die in West Bank Clash

Three Israeli soldiers were killed and one injured Saturday night during a gun battle in the West Bank with members of the militant Islamic group Hamas, the Israeli army said today. Two Palestinians also were wounded.

An army spokesman confirmed that one soldier may have been hit by “friendly fire” during a raid by Israeli troops that sparked the clash.

Israel Radio reported that the army chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, had appointed a commission of inquiry into the conduct of the raid.

Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, chief of the Central Command, told reporters that troops surrounded a house on the outskirts of the village of Assira Shamaliya, in an area where the Palestinian Authority has civilian control and Israel has security control. The army suspected that one of the leaders of Hamas was staying at the house, Eitan said. He said the troops were fired on from the house and a brief, fierce gun battle erupted.

Israel Radio later reported that the house belonged to the family of Mahmoud Abu Hunoud, suspected of involvement in a string of bombings in Israel and shooting attacks on Israelis in the West Bank in the past three years.

Abu Hunoud and at least one other armed Hamas militant fired on troops from the roof of the house, according to the report. Abu Hunoud was wounded in the gun battle and fled to nearby Nablus, where he was arrested by Palestinian police, according to Eitan. Another Hamas militant was injured and arrested at the house by the troops, he said.

After the raid began, the army coordinated with the Palestinian authorities, according to Eitan.

“From the moment the operation started, the coordinating mechanisms vis-a-vis the Palestinian side were operating, and there was coordination,” Eitan told reporters.

Israel Radio reported this morning that the village had been sealed off and that troops were still operating there. Residents of the village reached by telephone told the Associated Press that they heard repeated bursts of gunfire Saturday night. An Israel Television reporter who reached the village said that hundreds of troops were conducting house-to-house searches and that the villagers were under curfew.

Abu Hunoud, who lived in the village, was described by Israel Radio as the “most wanted terrorist” of the Hamas movement. He is believed to have masterminded two 1997 suicide bombings in Jerusalem that left 43 people dead, including the five bombers.

The raid comes at a time when tensions are high in the West Bank and Israeli and Palestinians continue to search for ways out of deadlocked peace negotiations. The two sides have been trying to resolve disputes over refugees and the status of Jerusalem and conclude a peace treaty by a Sept. 13 deadline.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian Authority denounced another raid carried out by Israeli troops on a West Bank village in which an elderly man was shot dead accidentally by troops. No official from the authority could be reached this morning for comment on Saturday night’s raid. Eitan said the Palestinian police had blocked entrance to the village from the Nablus area, which is under full Palestinian control.

Sources in the village said that the raid began shortly after 9 p.m. and that two Israeli helicopters hovered over the village, with lights trained on it, during the gun battle. At least one home in the village was destroyed by the troops, according to residents there.

At one point, hundreds of residents rushed into the streets despite the curfew. They burned several tires and chanted: “With our spirit and our blood, we will redeem you, Abu Hunoud!” the Associated Press reported.

Palestinian sources in Nablus said that Abu Hunoud gave himself up to Force 17--one of the Palestinian security forces--and was being held in custody at a Nablus hospital. He reportedly was wounded in the hand.

The Israeli army has warned for weeks that the situation in the West Bank has been explosive after the collapse of the Camp David peace summit in July. There have been increasingly frequent clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers there, and between Israeli troops and Jewish settlers. The army has warned that militant Palestinian groups, such as Hamas, and militant settlers are interested in scuttling peace efforts and have been looking for ways to provoke confrontations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“Unfortunately, Hamas has not stopped for one minute its attempts to carry out attacks against our forces,” Eitan said. The Israelis are likely to demand that the Palestinian Authority hand over Abu Hunoud. But sources in the authority told an Israeli television reporter today that the authority will put Abu Hunoud on trial. One Likud member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, demanded today on Israel Radio that the Palestinians hand over Abu Hunoud.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.