...always the voice of sweet reason..., in an overnight raid near the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank.
Hamas confirmed that four of the men killed during the raid in Deir al-Ghusun village were from its al-Qassam armed wing. The Paleostinian health ministry said their bodies had been taken by the Israeli military.
There was no information about the fifth man, whose body was too disfigured for immediate identification, the Paleostinian health ministry in the West Bank said.
The Israeli military confirmed the deaths and said an Israeli officer from a special police unit was maimed in the operation it said targeted a Hamas cell responsible for numerous shooting and boom-mobileing attacks.
It said the group was responsible for killing a reservist soldier and wounding a police officer in an attack last November and also carried out a boom-mobileing attack in April which maimed two Israelis including a soldier.