Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in raid on West Bank refugee camp, officials say

Israeli forces killed three Palestinians during a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday

Israeli forces killed three Palestinians during a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, officials said, as US top diplomat Antony Blinken stressed the need to de-escalate tensions during a visit to the region.

Israel's military said it killed a wanted suspect in an exchange of fire after encircling the house he was in. It said two more armed fighters who tried to escape the house were also killed in the operation, which lasted four hours and involved a "variety of means". No soldiers were injured, it added.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men in their thirties were shot dead by Israeli forces in the Nur Shams refugee camp near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm. It had no immediate comment on a third fatality.

Camp residents told Reuters that the two men who were shot were not inside the besieged house and that their bodies were found outside. He said Israel fired missiles at the house and bulldozed part of it before its forces withdrew.

Hours after the operation, none of the three men were claimed by any militant factions.

Some 13,519 Palestinian refugees are registered in Nur Shams camp with the UN agency for Palestinians, many of whom hope to return to homes from which they or their ancestors fled or were expelled in the 1948 war that followed Israel's creation.