Israeli tanks and helicopters hit PA targets in the West Bank cities of Jericho and Nablus early Wednesday in what Israel claimed was “retaliation for Palestinian fire on Israeli civilians and the army, said reports.
Israeli tanks fired five anti tank missiles late Tuesday night at PA security posts, including the general intelligence, in Jericho, causing severe damages to the buildings, reported the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
It added that a tourist area was also shelled, but reporting no injuries.
According to Haaretz newspaper, the shooting came in retaliation for Palestinian fire on an Israeli vehicle on the Jericho bypass road.
In Nablus, the paper said that Israeli helicopters hit buildings of the Palestinian Presidential Guards Unit, Force 17, but reporting no injuries.
The attack was in response to “fatal shootings by the Palestinians,” claimed the paper.
The paper also claimed that sixteen hand grenades and 19 Molotov cocktails were hurled an Israeli army vehicle near the Egyptian border.
"In response, IDF soldiers, who were unhurt, shot back," said army spokesman.
Palestinian sources reported that eight people were injured, five of them children during the exchange for fire, according to the paper.
Earlier, a Jewish settler was killed by Palestinian gunfire Tuesday night on a road in the northern West Bank, Israeli medical sources said.
His car came under fire near the settlement of Tapuach, south of the autonomous Palestinian town of Nablus, military sources said, cited by AFP and Haaretz.
They said the driver, 39-year-old Zohar Shirgi, a resident of the Jewish settlement of Yafit in the Jordan valley, lost control of his bullet-ridden vehicle before crashing it in a ditch.
Shirgi, who was heading towards Yafit from Israel, died instantly, they said.
A senior Israeli police official who was driving in the area also came under fire but his vehicle was not hit.
The Israeli army sealed off the sector and started combing the area in an attempt to "capture the attackers," who are suspected of having sought refuge in Nablus, a source told Haaretz – Albawaba.com
