JENIN: Israel on Monday began a large-scale military raid including drone strikes and hundreds of troops in the northern occupied West Bank, killing eight Palestinians.
The operation under the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the biggest of its kind in years, with bulldozers, armoured vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Troops in Jenin were inside the camp and also around the city. There were gun battles, explosions, and Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli troops, the correspondent reported.
Israel had already stepped up operations in the northern West Bank, home to Jenin city and its adjacent refugee camp, which is a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups and where there has been a spate of attacks on Israelis as well as attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian communities.
The Palestinian health ministry said that in Monday's operation eight people were killed -- exceeding the toll of seven from an Israeli army raid in Jenin refugee camp two weeks ago which saw use of helicopter missile fire.
Fifty others were injured including 10 who were in serious condition, the ministry said.
"There is bombing from the air and an invasion from the ground," Mahmoud al-Saadi said, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin.
"Several houses and sites have been bombed... smoke is rising from everywhere."
The Israeli army said its forces had struck a "joint operations centre", which served as a command post for the "Jenin Brigade".
The area is nominally under the control of president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.
Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has worsened since early last year, including under the latest administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which took power in December, a coalition between his Likud party and extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies.
Netanyahu's coalition contains hardline West Bank settlers, including extreme-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
An army statement said that one soldier was lightly injured" by Israeli army grenade shrapnel.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.
Netanyahu has pledged to "strengthen settlements" and has expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, which have been moribund since 2014.
In a separate incident a Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli fire near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said. — AFP
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