RAMALLAH - Israeli troops staged an incursion into the West Bank political capital of Ramallah Tuesday and exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen, a local security sources said.
Around 30 military jeeps drove into the centre of the city and took up position around several houses in Ramallah where shooting rang out from both Israelis and Palestinians, an AFP correspondent said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israeli troops were surrounding three suspected militants from the radical Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a faction loosely affiliated to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's moderate Fatah party, a Palestinian security source said.
In the northern West Bank, two Palestinians found carrying explosives were earlier arrested by Israeli troops at a control post, military sources said.
10/10/2006 16:46 GMT