Israeli forces killed three Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank today.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, announced the deaths of the three gunmen over loudspeakers in Balata refugee camp in the city of Nablus, saying they were killed by soldiers mounting a raid.
An Israeli military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said Palestinians fired at troops who entered Balata and nearby Askar refugee camp to arrest militants in the pre-dawn operation.
"The soldiers shot back, and several (gunmen) were hit. One soldier was slightly wounded. In all, 11 terrorists were detained," she said.
Israeli forces are pressing ahead with raids against militants despite a halt to cross-border rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
The week-long wave of violence has badly frayed a seven-month-old ceasefire and deflated hopes that Israel's Gaza pullout might soon open the way for a revival of peacemaking after five years of bloodshed.
Yesterday, Israeli troops shot dead three gunmen in West Bank raids.
Hundreds of suspected militants have been detained by Israeli forces in sweeps into Palestinian villages and towns in the territory over the past week.
The rocket fire that led to the Israeli offensive, which has included artillery and missile attacks in the Gaza Strip, abated on Tuesday in response to pleas from the Palestinian public for calm to enable reconstruction after 38 years of occupation.
Palestinians recently finished voting in a third round of local elections in the West Bank - widely seen as a test of political clout for the militant Hamas group ahead of a parliamentary ballot in January.
Fatah won control of 59 per cent of the 104 municipal councils up for grabs compared with 27 per cent for Hamas and 14 per cent for other factions.