RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian militant during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the seventh person killed this week as President Mahmoud Abbas sought to revive statehood talks amid efforts to further integrate Israel into the Middle East. In a statement, they said he was shot while confronting Israeli soldiers who raided the village of Kafr Dan near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. The Israeli military said soldiers opened fire at suspects who shot at and hurled an explosive device at its forces during a weapons search operation in Kafr Dan. Violence in the West Bank violence has surged for over a year, with stepped up Israeli military raids, increased settler assaults on Palestinian villages and a spate of Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis. Israel occupied the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state, in a 1967 Middle East war.

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Persons: Mahmoud Abbas, Kafr Dan, Benjamin Netanyahu's, Joe Biden, Netanyahu, Abbas, Ali Sawafta, Henriette Chacar, James Mackenzie, Christina Fincher Organizations: West Bank, Reuters, Islamic, Defense, Children International, U.S, United Nations General Assembly, UN Locations: RAMALLAH, West, Palestinian, Israel, Kafr, West Bank, Jenin, Kafr Dan, Palestine, New York, Saudi Arabia