We are preserving our freedom of action, as was demonstrated yesterday in the West Bank city of Nablus, the official warned in an interview with the Walla news website.

Gantz was referring to a raid by the army, the police and the Shin Bet (internal security service) in the city that killed three Palestinians and injured more than 60 others.

One of the dead was identified as Ibrahim Nablusi, accused by Tel Aviv of planning several attacks against Israelis.

“All the heads of terrorist organizations should be terrified,” the Minister said in another interview with public television station Kan.

Israel considers Palestinian groups such as the Islamic Resistance Movement and Islamic Jihad, among others, which reject that label and claim to be fighting against the occupation of their land, to be terrorists.

According to the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, from 2002 to 2008 at least 387 Palestinians were killed in such operations.

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