NABLUS (AFP) - Israeli troops killed six Palestinians in two separate operations on Saturday, including a West Bank raid the Palestinian Authority condemned as a dangerous escalation. It was the highest toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in a single day since a 22-day Gaza war launched one year ago tomorrow, and came amid growing tensions between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. The raid in the West Bank town of Nablus saw dozens of Israeli jeeps roar into the historic Old City before troops barged in and shot three members of President Mahmud Abbas Fatah movement in different houses, witnesses said. The Jewish military alleged the three had killed an Israeli settler driving through the West Bank on Thursday when they sprayed his vehicle with bullets and that one of them, Anan Subuh, 36, was in a hiding place and armed with a handgun. Another activist, Raid al-Surakji, 40, used his wife as a shield when troops stormed his house, the military said. Soldiers opened fire, killing him and wounding the woman with a shot to the leg. Family members said the troops entered without warning and killed all three men in cold blood, insisting none resisted arrest or opened fire. Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner confirmed none of the men fired any shots but said they refused to surrender and were considered armed and dangerous. Subuh was a member of Fatahs armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, but had been granted amnesty by Israel. The other two were party activists, said a Palestinian security official who asked not to be named. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad denounced the operation as a deliberate attempt to undermine recent security gains. This operation represents a dangerous escalation, and can only be seen in the context of targeting the security and stability that the Palestinian Authority has been able to bring about, he said in a statement. Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina also slammed the operation, accusing Israel of trying to drag our people into a spiral of bloody violence. At the funeral processions for the three men, hundreds of people marched through the streets waving Palestinian and Fatah flags, chanting, With our souls, with our blood we sacrifice for you, martyrs. Meanwhile, another three Palestinians were killed in an airstrike in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip near the security fence along the northern border, local medics and the Israeli military said. A military spokeswoman said the three were armed men who had ignored warning shots, but medics and Hamas border guards stationed nearby said they were civilians scavenging for scrap metal. Gaza, which Hamas seized from Abbas forces in June 2007, has been relatively calm since a January 18 ceasefire ended Israels massive 22-day offensive aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks. Some 1,400 Palestinian and 13 Israelis were killed and entire neighbourhoods were flattened in what was the deadliest Israeli offensive ever launched on the territory.