Israeli raid in West Bank kills 3

Palestinian officials suspended planned peace talks after Israeli forces killed three people in a dawn raid Monday in the Qalandiya refugee camp outside Ramallah, potentially dealing a new blow to the U.S.-led peace effort that resumed late last month. But U.S. officials insisted that negotiations had not been suspended.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency later said one of those killed, a 34-year-old father of four, was an employee who had been walking to work when he was shot in the chest. The agency condemned the killing.

The U.S. State Department discounted claims that Palestinian officials had suspended talks, saying both sides were still engaged in "serious and sustained" negotiations, Reuters reported.

The future of the talks had been questioned by Palestinian officials after Israel announced the building of new settlements on occupied territory at the start of the latest round of negotiations.

Israeli forces entered the area looking for a suspect when hundreds of Palestinians poured into the streets and hurled firebombs, concrete blocks and rocks at them, according to Israeli border police spokesman Shai Hakimi.

Hakimi said officers used riot-control munitions, a term that usually refers to rubber bullets and tear gas, adding that police are investigating the incident.

An official at a hospital in Ramallah said, however, that the three victims died from gunshot wounds.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera the raid injured 15 Palestinians, six of them seriously, in the refugee camp, which is near a key checkpoint in the separation wall.

The identity of the man being sought by the Israelis was not made public. Nighttime raids to arrest wanted Palestinians are common in parts of the West Bank.

Some 14 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank this year.  

"Such a crime proves the need for an urgent and effective international protection for our people," Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said.

The Israeli military said its soldiers opened fire after they felt their lives were in "imminent danger."

"Large, violent crowds such as this which significantly outnumber security forces leave no other choice but to resort to live fire in self-defense," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.

A 13-year-old boy from the camp, whom Al Jazeera has not named because of his age, said he was on his way to school when he saw Israeli soldiers shooting live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas. 

"I counted about 10 army vehicles in total and many soldiers marching alongside them shooting randomly," he said, adding that at least two of the vehicles had caught fire from gasoline bombs hurled by the youth.

"I'm not usually scared when the army invades, but that moment, it was hard not to be because of all the shooting."

Mohamed, a 19-year-old with a fresh bandage wrapped around his head, said he had just left home for work when he was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet. "Everyone was lying on the ground when I got hit," he said.

Hours after the killings, hundreds of mourners gathered at the Qalandiya Mosque for the three men's funeral.

When midday prayers ended, a group of masked Palestinian fighters carrying M-16 assault rifles fired bursts of ammunition into the air before the three bodies, wrapped in white cloth and Palestinian flags, were carried out of the mosque. 

The crowd followed, chanting "With our blood, with our souls, we will redeem you, O martyrs."

There was at least one arrest in the raid, according to The Associated Press.

Hatim Khatib, whose brother Youssef was arrested in the raid, told AP that undercover troops dressed in civilian clothes arrived at their home at 4:30 a.m. looking for Youssef.

"After half an hour we started hearing shooting from the soldiers inside our house, and then people started throwing stones at them," he said.

Al Jazeera and wire services. Matthew Cassel contributed to this report.