At least nine Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded in an Israeli raid on a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank following months of unrest, according to local authorities.
The Israeli military also fatally shot a 22-year-old Palestinian later in a separate incident.
The deadliest single operation in the territory in two decades prompted Palestinian leaders to cut security ties with Israel, a move that could lead to more violence.
The raid in the Jenin refugee camp increases the risk of a major flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian fighting, poses a test for Israel's new hard-line government and casts a shadow on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's expected trip to the region next week.
The violence occurred during what Palestinian health officials described as a fierce operation in the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold of the West Bank that has been a focus of nearly a year of Israeli arrest raids.
Israeli media reported troops came under fire during the raid. At least one of the dead was identified as a militant.
Jenin hospital identified a 61-year-old woman killed as Magda Obaid. Health officials said the eight other dead as men ranged from 18 to 40 years old.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health earlier identified another one of the dead as Saeb Azriqi, 24, who was brought to a hospital in critical condition after being shot, and died from his wounds.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade — an armed militia affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority — claimed one of the dead, Izz al-Din Salahat, as a fighter.
The ministry said at least 20 people were wounded.
Israel's military said it sent special forces into Jenin to detain members of the Islamic Jihad armed group suspected of having carried out and planning "multiple major terror attacks", shooting several of them after they opened fire.
It said the incursion targeted militants who were allegedly behind attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians and, according to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, were planning "to conduct a terror attack in Israel".
Later in the day, Israeli forces fatally shot a 22-year-old, the Palestinian health ministry said, as young Palestinians confronted Israeli troops north of Jerusalem to protest Thursday's raid.
Palestinian Health Minister May Al-Kaila said paramedics struggled to reach the wounded amid the fighting.
She also accused the military of firing tear gas at the paediatric ward of a hospital, causing children to choke.
The military said forces closed roads to facilitate their operation, which may have complicated the efforts of rescue teams, and that tear gas had likely wafted into the hospital from the clashes nearby.
Palestinian Authority cuts security ties
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh condemned the violence, calling on the international community to speak out against it.
He told reporters several hours after the raid that Palestinian leadership had ordered a halt to the ties that Palestinian security forces maintain with Israel in a shared effort to contain Islamic militants.
Previous Palestinian moves to suspend this coordination have been short-lived, in part because of the benefits it enjoys from the relationship and also due to US and Israeli pressure to maintain it.
He also said that the Palestinians planned to file complaints with the UN Security Council, International Criminal Court and other international bodies.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation, though he ordered security forces "to prepare for all scenarios in the various sectors."
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf said they were pushing to calm tensions and that the security coordination should be deepened, not cut.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza, threatened revenge. Violent escalations in the West Bank have previously triggered retaliatory rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Tor Wennesland, a UN mediator, said on Twitter that he was "actively engaged with Israeli and Palestinian authorities to de-escalate tensions, restore calm and avoid further conflict".
Tensions soar over continued Israel raids
Israeli forces in the West Bank and on the country's border with Gaza went on heightened alert as protesters poured into the streets across the territory.
Images in Palestinian media showed the charred exterior of a two-storey building and debris on the street. The military said it entered the building in order to detonate explosives it said were being used by the suspects.
Israel's new national security minister, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who seeks to grant legal immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot Palestinians, posted a video of himself on Thursday beside the Israeli police chief.
He congratulated security forces on a "successful operation," saying the government gives "backing to our fighters in the war against the terrorists".
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have soared since Israel launched the raids last spring, following a spate of Palestinian attacks that killed 19 people, while another round of attacks later in the year brought the death toll to 30.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year, making 2022 the deadliest since 2004, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem.
Israeli says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks.
The Palestinians say they further entrench Israel's 55-year, open-ended occupation of lands they seek for their future state.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war, territories the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state.
Story by: AP/Reuters
Stay tuned for the latest news on our radio stations
