Palestinian forces search for Israelis - source. (Hat tip: SoCalJustice.)

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian security forces were searching for Israelis in the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday after a militant faction first said it had killed two soldiers then said they were being held alive.

A police officer in the West Bank city said it was unclear whether there had been a kidnapping at all. “No one knows,” he said.

Israel’s army did not comment.

A Palestinian security source said an Israeli vehicle had been found abandoned in the Balata refugee camp of the militant stronghold. It showed no signs of damage.

Abu Thaer, a spokesman for the Ayman Jouda units of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, told a news conference in the Gaza Strip that two soldiers had been captured when they entered Nablus undercover as part of a raiding force.

Abu Thaer said that the two were being held alive in Nablus and had not been killed — as he himself had said earlier.