Among the dead is Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, the apparent target of the Israeli raid. The other men killed were identified by Palestinian Health Ministry officials as Islam Sabbouh and Hussein Jamal Taha.
A statement from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a loose coalition of smaller armed groups, hailed the deaths of the three men as a heroic act of resistance.
Although closely allied, the PRC is viewed as separate from the armed wings of the militant groups Islamic Jihad (the Quds Forces) and Hamas (the Qassam Forces).
Israel has accused Al Nabulsi of involvement in a series of recent shootings at Israelis in the West Bank.
Israeli forces surrounded a building in the old city of Nablus early Tuesday before targeting it with a shoulder-launched missile, an Israeli statement said, sparking an exchange of fire.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, said on Telegram that its members in Nablus “were engaged in violent confrontations with enemy special forces as they stormed the Old City.”
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, around 40 people were injured in the violent clashes, several of them seriously, in addition to the three men who were killed.
The deadly clashes appear to be testing the strength of a ceasefire restored in Gaza just over 24 hours ago, ending two days of Israeli airstrikes on Islamic Jihad targets and rockets fired at Israel. The ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was still in place on Tuesday.
An Islamic Jihad spokesman told CNN on Tuesday that Israel arrests and kills without any accountability.
“That’s why we decided to resist with our weapons. If we don’t find weapons, we will resist with stones, but we will not give up,” spokesman Daoud Shihab said.
Tuesday’s raid follows the worst hostilities between Israel and militants in Gaza in more than a year. On Friday, Israel launched so-called preemptive strikes against Islamic Jihad targets in the coastal enclave. At least 44 Palestinian militants and civilians, including 15 children, were killed in the violence, according to Palestinian officials, before a ceasefire was agreed Sunday night.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Monday the operation had “restored deterrence”.
“All of our goals have been achieved. The entire high-level Islamic Jihad military command in Gaza was successfully attacked within three days,” he said.
The operation also took a toll on Gaza’s civilian population. Israel and Egypt have sealed off the Gaza Strip since 2007, restricting access to the territory by land, air and sea, including severe restrictions on the movement of residents and the flow of goods.
Gaza’s only power plant had to be shut down on Saturday after it ran out of fuel, causing drastic power disruptions to the area’s two million residents. Fuel shipments resumed Monday after the ceasefire agreement for the first time in a week through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.
Islamic Jihad, the smaller of the two main militant groups in Gaza, fired some 1,175 rockets at Israel during the escalation, mostly at Israeli communities near Gaza, according to Israeli sources. The group also launched rockets toward Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Around 185 rockets landed in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday. The Iron Dome air defense system, deployed against any incoming fire deemed a threat to people or buildings and intercepting missiles fired at Jerusalem, has been deployed with a 96% success rate, an IDF spokesman said Monday.
A senior Israeli diplomat speaking to reporters on Monday appeared to acknowledge that Israel’s campaign may have been responsible for some civilian deaths, as well as those of militants, and said initial estimates were that “most” of the civilian casualties were the result of a misguided missile Fire from Islamic Jihad. Civilian casualties are always a tragedy, the official said.
In an incident on Saturday, four children were among seven people killed in an explosion in Jabaliya, northern Gaza. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike, but Israel denied the claim, blaming misguided rocket fire. The IDF released video showing an Islamic Jihad missile apparently suddenly losing power and falling to the ground over a built-up area.