BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Israeli troops on Thursday killed five Palestinians, including a top militant who said just a day earlier that he would never be caught, in Israel's largest military sweep since pulling out from the Gaza Strip last summer. Three of the dead were gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party — killed during a shootout in their hide-out in the Balata refugee camp. The deaths brought to eight the number of Palestinians killed by army fire since the Balata sweep began Monday. The military...
