World Bulletin/News Desk

An Israeli settler died early Sunday when his car rammed into barricades in the West Bank city of Nablus after being hurled by stones.

The settler's vehicle overturned and hit barricades when Palestinian protesters pelted stones at Israeli vehicles in southern Nablus, eyewitnesses said.

Fierce clashes broke out between Palestinian protestors and Israeli forces, which used teargas canisters and gunfire to disperse the protesters.

Tension has been running high in the Palestinian territories since Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from the strip.

At least 163 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured in unrelenting Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since Monday.

Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire low-yield rockets at Israeli cities in response to the ongoing attacks.