Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank

By Atef Saad

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday in the first fatal raid since a ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip last week.

Islamic Jihad threatened to launch attacks inside Israel to avenge the death of Tarek Juma Abu Ghali, whom the militant group described as one of its most senior commanders in the northern West Bank.

A second Palestinian, affiliated with the Islamist militant group Hamas, was also killed in the overnight raid, Palestinian security sources said.

The killings, which were confirmed by the Israeli army, could test the fragile ceasefire that took effect last Thursday between Israel and militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

"Calm in Gaza does not mean that we will sit in our seats waiting to be slaughtered one by one," Islamic Jihad said in a statement. "This crime will not pass without punishment and the coming days will be a witness to that."

Hamas, which claimed responsibility for a shooting attack that injured three Israeli hikers near a West Bank settlement on Friday, also called on Palestinian groups in the West Bank to retaliate for the killings, saying they had a right to do so because the ceasefire deal was limited to the Gaza Strip.

Western-backed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad departed from his prepared remarks at a security conference in Berlin to condemn the Nablus raid.

"This is the kind of activity that has to stop, and has to stop promptly, if we are going to be able to succeed," Fayyad said. "Our own political credibility will continue to be at stake as long as those kinds of incursions continue."