West Bank violence escalates

February 28, 2007

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad vowed to avenge the deaths of two of its commanders and their driver, who were killed by an Israeli undercover unit near the West Bank town of Jenin. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) kept up pressure on militants elsewhere in the West Bank as troops moved back into Nablus a day after pulling out of the city. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Israel's intensified military activity in the West Bank reflected the Jewish state's rejection of the new Palestinian unity government.