One killed as Palestinian Islamic Jihad clash with Palestinian police in Tulkarem, West Bank

Fighting erupted in a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank Wednesday between Palestinians and their own security forces, Palestinian authorities said, leaving a 25-year-old Palestinian dead. The unrest underscored the challenges facing Palestinian police trying to impose order in the occupied territory.

Israeli soldiers also shot a Palestinian man who they said tried to ram his car into soldiers at a military checkpoint, hitting and lightly wounding a soldier, authorities said. 

Palestinian police entered the refugee camp in Tulkarem after residents appealed to the Palestinian Authority to remove metal street barriers set up by local fighters that were blocking access to homes and schools, Palestinian security spokesperson Talal Dweikat said.

The angled metal barricades are a staple in the militarized refugee camps of the northern West Bank, meant to deter Israeli military vehicles during the frequent violent raids in the Palestinian territory, which has killed scores of people.

After police cleared the streets, Dweikat said Palestinian gunmen opened fire in front of the Tulkarem Muqata, the authority headquarters. Police responded "to control the security situation", he added.

A Palestinian security officer in Tulkarem, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media, said that an uninvolved Palestinian resident who he identified as 25-year-old Abdul Latif Quzah was caught in the crossfire and killed.

He claimed the Palestinian security forces had fired tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group but not live fire. Palestinians, he said, were seeking to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death but the local fighters refused and was keeping his body.

In flashpoint point cities in the northern West Bank under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, attempts by Palestinian security forces to reassert internal control have stirred anger among defiant armed groups, who deride the unpopular authority and its leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, as collaborators with Israel. The PA adminsters semi-autonomous areas in the Israeli occupied territory.

Unable to protect Palestinians against surging attacks by Jewish settlers and deadly Israeli military raids into Palestinian towns and cities, Palestinian security forces have faced deep public criticism over their perceived impotence and reviled security alliance with Israel that dates back to the Oslo peace accords three decades ago.

Even as the fighting in Tulkarem camp petered out, the situation remained tense. The head of police in nearby Jenin, Brig. Gen. Azzam Jebara, said the authority was sending police reinforcements to Tulkarem.

Meanwhile the Israeli military said that the alleged attempted car-ramming attack occurred near Beit Hagai, a illegal Jewish settlement in the hills south of the large Palestinian city of Hebron. It said Israeli security forces had shot the Palestinian driver as he accelerated toward the military post. The soldier struck by the car was evacuated to a hospital.

Images from the scene showed the car's air bag bloodied and driver's seat window riddled with bullet holes. There was no immediate word on the condition of the suspected Palestinian assailant, although Wafa News Agency reported the suspect injured. 

Since the beginning of the year over 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, according to the UN, as well as close to 30 Israelis in the same time in retaliatory attacks.

Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle armed groups and thwart future attacks, however Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces, inspire more militancy and entrench Israeli control over lands they seek for a hoped-for future state.

Israel has increasingly sought to expand it's control over the occupied West Bank, with the Israeli government seeking to approve funding and building of further settlements across the occupied territories.