THE Israeli military raided a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank today, invading a flat and sparking a gunfight that killed an uninvolved Palestinian teacher, Palestinian health officials said.

Israeli soldiers stormed into a town near Tubas, north-east of Nablus, and surrounded a house where militants were believed to be holed up. The soldiers called on the militants through loudspeakers to surrender, residents said.

When the gunmen refused, the Israeli military launched missiles and grenades at the building to try to force them out. Videos showed giant plumes of smoke billowing from the flat.

But the gunmen managed to flee the wrecked house, the local branch of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group claimed.

During the firefight, 36-year-old Palestinian Abdulrahim Ghanem was killed while walking home to his wife after spending the early morning tending to his sheep and vegetables at his farm, his 33-year-old cousin Islam said.

Mr Ghanem worked as an English teacher at a secondary school in the area, Islam added, declining to give his own last name for fear of reprisals.

He said that Mr Ghanem avoided politics as much as he could and had no connection to the local armed group.

The Israeli army said it was not specifically aware of Mr Ghanem’s death, but that soldiers reported they killed one Palestinian who they identified as a gunman.

The Palestinian Health Ministry blamed Israel for his death, saying that an Israeli army bullet struck Mr Ghanem in the head.

During Mr Ghanem’s funeral, scores of people streamed through the streets chanting against Israel as they held his body aloft, wrapped in a simple white sheet rather than in any Palestinian faction flags.

Palestinian presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh issued a statement today about the deteriorating security situation in the West Bank, condemning Israel’s “incursions into Palestinian cities, villages and towns, and the detention of hundreds of Palestinians, all of which aim to try to drag the territory into a spiral of violence.”

Earlier today, the Israeli army said it also raided several other towns in the West Bank and the city of Nablus, arresting seven suspected militants.

The near-daily military raids have fuelled tensions in the region and have ushered in some of the worst fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank since the last Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.

Over 180 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Some 31 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that time.