Two Palestinian men sought for possession of weapons and other offenses were killed in a gun battle with Palestinian police in an arrest raid in the town of Nablus in which two officers also died, officials said on Friday.

Palestinian security forces have arrested over 100 suspects in the past two months in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in a heightened effort to crack down on crime, Adnan al Damiri, a Palestinian security spokesman said.

The operation in Nablus, by forces of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, began on Thursday and several other suspects are still being sought, Damiri said.

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Although Israel has overall security control, Abbas’s PA has partial control in some areas in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians want for a future state along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

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