Israeli forces kill local Hamas commander in West Bank

Israeli forces killed a local Hamas commander in the flashpoint city of Jenin on Friday as they pressed a major operation in the occupied West Bank for a third day, the Israeli military said.

The military said Border Police forces had killed Wassem Hazem, who it said was the head of Hamas in Jenin and was involved in shooting and bombing attacks in the Palestinian territory.

Two other Hamas gunmen who tried to escape the car they were all travelling in were killed by a drone, it said. Weapons, explosives and large sums of cash were found in the vehicle, it said. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

In the village of Zababdeh, just outside Jenin, a burnt-out car riddled with bullet holes stood against a wall where the driver crashed the vehicle after being pursued by an Israeli special forces unit, residents said.

Villager Saif Ghannam, 25, said one of the two other men who escaped from the vehicle was killed just outside his house by a small drone strike that shattered the windows, while a second man was killed a short distance away.

Ghannam said Israeli forces had removed the bodies but large pools of blood lay on the ground where he said the men were killed.

The incident occurred as Israeli forces kept up a large-scale operation involving hundreds of troops and police that was launched in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Jenin and Tulkarm, another volatile city in the northern West Bank, as well as the Jordan Valley.

Israeli armoured personnel carriers backed by helicopters and drones pushed into Jenin and Tulkarm on Friday while armoured bulldozers ploughed up roads to destroy roadside bombs planted by the militant groups.