At least seven Palestinians were killed in clashes after Israeli troops backed by the air force raided a town in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, medics and local media said.
The Israeli army and police said their forces, sent into Tulkarm close to the boundary with Israel to detain suspected militants, came under fire and killed several Palestinian gunmen in the skirmish that followed, Reuters said.
An Israeli air strike hit a group of Palestinians who shot and threw a bomb at the group, an army and police statement said. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the air strike was carried out by a drone and killed three people.
There was no word of any Israeli casualties and no Palestinian armed faction said it had lost members in the incident.
Israel has been striking armed groups in the West Bank with increasing intensity as it wages war on Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, another area where Palestinians seek statehood.
Anger over the fighting has risen in the West Bank and many parts of the Arab world, and calls for a Gaza ceasefire are growing.
