12:57pm UK, Saturday December 26, 2009

Alison Chung, Sky News Online

Six Palestinians have been killed during two Israeli military operations a day before the anniversary of the three-week war in Gaza.

The Israeli raid on the homes of three Palestinians in the West Bank town of Nablus

Israeli soldiers stormed into the West Bank town of Nablus and shot dead three suspected militants accused of gunning down a Jewish settler on Thursday.

A military spokeswoman described the operation as a “pinpointed raid to capture the perpetrators of the shooting attack”.

One of the victims was a member of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, but had been granted amnesty by Israel.

The two other men were Fatah party activists, according to a Palestinian security official.

In a separate operation, three Palestinians were killed by an Israeli air strike in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip near the border.

The Israeli military claimed the three were approaching the security fence to carry out an attack.

Palestinian mourners carry the bodies of the three dead Palestinians

It is one of the worst days of violence in the region for months.

Mr Abbas’s top aide Nabil Abu Rdainah accused Israel of inflaming tensions.

“This grave Israeli escalation shows Israel is not interested in peace and is trying to explode the situation,” he said.

“Israel is torpedoing international and American efforts to restart peace talks.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad, a close ally of Mr Abbas, said he “strongly condemned” the shootings, which he viewed as an “extreme escalation”.

“This is a sad day for Palestinians,” Mr Fayyad added, before urging the international community to intervene.

The violence comes a day before the first anniversary of the 22-day war in Gaza that killed 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

In recent months, the US has pressed Israel to halt settlement construction in the Palestinian territories in order to relaunch peace talks suspended after last year’s conflict.