Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
A source in Islamic Jihad, which lost three men including a local leader, in the Bethlehem raid, vowed revenge. According to Reuters, witnesses in Bethlehem said Israeli commandos disguised as locals and riding in a taxi with Palestinian licence plates drove up to a car full of gunmen and sprayed it with bullets.
The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out the raid, saying its forces intended to arrest the Palestinians but opened fire after seeing that three of them had assault rifles.
The Islamic Jihad members, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, "took part in terrorist attacks in which there were many Israeli casualties". Palestinian officials identified one of the Islamic Jihad dead as Mahmoud Shehada the group's local leader. The fourth victim belonged to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Fatah.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office as calling the Bethlehem killings "an ugly crime" and warning Israel of unspecified "consequences".
Before the Bethlehem killings, Israel rebuffed the demand made by Hamas of halting West Bank operations, arguing that they are necessary to thwart attacks. "There is nothing," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told political supporters, referring to speculation that a halt to the fighting was imminent. "We'll witness more difficult things yet, an even tougher reckoning, before we get to the calm stage."
