Two Palestinians were killed in separate clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry reported early Thursday, claims which the Israeli military views with suspicion.
One of the men was identified as Samer Khaled, 25, from the Ein Beit al-Ma’ refugee camp, who was shot in the neck during a firefight in Nablus’s Balata refugee camp, according to Palestinian reports.
The second was identified as Yazan Afaneh, 26, from the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, who was reportedly shot in the chest during clashes in the city of al-Bireh near Ramallah.
Both men were pronounced dead on scene.
The IDF said it was familiar with the claims, but defense officials estimate that Khaled was "most likely" not killed by Israeli fire.
The military said that forces entered Balata and al-Bireh early Thursday to arrest wanted individuals as part of Israel's monthslong crackdown on Palestinian terrorist activity prompted by a series of attacks that left 19 Israelis dead earlier this year.
In addition to arrests, forces seized in Balata money suspected to have been intended for terror purposes.
In both raids, exchanges of fire erupted between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen. Israeli forces left both scenes after successfully making the arrests.
Reports about the deaths of the two Palestinians surfaced only about an hour after Israeli forces departed and the IDF treats claims they were killed by Israeli fire with suspicion.
The military speculates Khaled was either killed by Palestinian gunfire or as part of a criminal dispute. Another possibility that was raised is that he was shot after the Palestinians mistook him for an undercover Israeli special forces soldier.
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit reported that Israeli forces conducted multiple raids across the West Bank and arrested six wanted persons. There were no casualties among Israeli troops.