Palestinians living in the Samarian town of Nablus placed concrete barriers in the central areas of the city at the weekend in an effort to prevent Israeli anti-terror operations there.

On Saturday morning, those barricades exploded, damaging dozens of homes and knocking out water and electricity to Nablus' Old City.

Palestinian officials predictably blamed the Israeli army, but military officials told Israel's Ynet news portal that when the Palestinians placed such barriers in the past, they packed them with explosives in order to harm Israeli soldier sent to remove them.

The officials went on to say, however, that Israel would have been justified in destroying the barriers, since they were placed in order to protect terrorists using Nablus as a base of operations against the Jewish state.

Israeli forces have been operating in Nablus for months, and have labeled the town a major hub of Palestinian terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria.