JERUSALEM/JENIN, West Bank - The Israeli military said on Thursday its troops killed five Palestinian fighters who were hiding inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, in one of the largest assaults on the occupied territory for months.

The operation, which a Reuters witness said has yet to conclude, began in the early hours of Wednesday with hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones and armoured personnel carriers raiding the flashpoint cities of Tulkarm, Jenin and areas in the Jordan Valley.

There was also a complete network outage at Jawwal, one of the two main telecommunications companies in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Reuters witness.

Palestinian health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were killed in Wednesday's operations.

In Jenin earlier, bulldozers edged along empty, rubbish-strewn streets as the sound of drones pierced the sky.

Israeli troops searched ambulances on deserted city streets and in front of Jenin's main hospital, having blocked off access to it on Wednesday to prevent fighters from seeking refuge there.

Israel said one of the five fighters killed in the Tulkarm mosque was Muhhamad Jabber, known as "Abu Shujaa", the head of a network of fighters in the Nur Shams refugee camp next to the city.

The Tulkarm division of Islamic Jihad's armed wing said: "As part of the response to the assassination of our leader, our fighters were able to ambush an infantry force in the Manshiyya axis behind Abu Ubaida Mosque".

The militant group claimed "direct hits" on Israeli troops after it detonated an explosive device near them.

The armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah factions said in separate statements on Wednesday their gunmen were detonating bombs against Israeli military vehicles in Jenin, Tulkarm and Far'a, a town in the Jordan Valley.

Clashes in the West Bank have escalated since Israel's war with Hamas militants began in Gaza nearly 11 months ago.

 

ESCALATING CLASHES

Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to militant factions there and has stepped up West Bank operations, while Jewish settlers have launched frequent vigilante-style attacks on Palestinian communities.

Referring to the latest West Bank assault, Israel's foreign minister Israel Katz said in a post on X overnight: "This is a war in every sense, and we must win it."

He accused Iran of working to destabilize Jordan and establish an eastern front against Israel, like it has done in Gaza and in Lebanon, where Israel has been trading almost daily fire with militants from the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah.

To address the threat of an eastern front, Katz said Israel would have to use "all necessary means, including, in cases of intense combat, allowing the population to temporarily evacuate from one neighbourhood to another to prevent civilian harm".

In nearby Gaza, evacuation orders have displaced nearly all of the enclave's 2.3 million people multiple times, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease.

The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian violence began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants stormed from Gaza into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

Israel's Gaza campaign has since demolished swathes of the enclave, and killed more than 40,500 people, Palestinian health officials say.

Internationally mediated talks to end the conflict continue.

Since the Gaza war began, thousands of Palestinians have been arrested in West Bank and East Jerusalem raids and more than 660 - fighters and civilians - have been killed, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.

At least 30 Israelis have been killed in attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank during the period, according to Israeli tallies.

(Reporting by Maytaal Angel and Ali Sawafta; Additional reporting by Jana Choukeir; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Sharon Singleton)