Rhino: Agencies – At least one person was killed when Palestinian security forces clashed with Palestinian militants and set up checkpoints on Saturday in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, residents and medics said.

Gunfire and explosions rang out in the city where friction has escalated in recent days between armed groups and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by Mahmoud Abbas, following PA raids.

The PA security services said in a statement that its forces were carrying out a security operation to restore law and order in the historic Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of Palestinian militants ostracized by the PA.

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad denounced the PA for the Jenin operation.

In a statement, they condemned “the continued pursuit by the PA security services of resistance fighters and those wanted by the occupation, and we condemn the escalating and deliberate targeting of them in Jenin.”