Two days of Israeli raids kill at least 16 Palestinians in West Bank

Israel on Thursday pressed a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank that killed at least 16 Palestinians in two days, despite UN concerns it was "fuelling an already explosive situation".

The "counter-terrorism" operation underway across the northern West Bank since early Wednesday has killed 16 Palestinians, the Israeli military said. The Palestinian health ministry gave the same figure, after both revised earlier tolls.

The raids on several towns and refugee camps were launched as violence raged on in the war-battered Gaza Strip, the besieged Palestinian territory separated from the West Bank by Israel.

The World Health Organisation said Israel had agreed to at least three days of "humanitarian pauses" in parts of Gaza, starting Sunday, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the first case of once-eradicated polio had been confirmed in the territory.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday the measures were "not a ceasefire" in the nearly 11-month-old war triggered by Hamas's 7 October attack.

In the West Bank, columns of Israeli armoured vehicles backed by troops and aircraft were sent in before soldiers encircled refugee camps in Tubas and Tulkarem, as well as Jenin, and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants.

The army said it killed seven militants on Thursday, including five militants in the Tulkarem refugee camp.

A military statement said one of the five was Muhammad Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, who Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said was its commander in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp.

Two other militants were killed in Jenin on Thursday, the army said.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called for an "immediate cessation of these operations", which were "fuelling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank".

The violence has caused significant destruction, especially in Tulkarem, whose governor Mustafa Taqatqa described the raids as "unprecedented" and a "dangerous signal".

The UN humanitarian office OCHA said "Israeli forces have repurposed homes as military positions" and were "effectively besieging" several medical facilities.

AFPTV footage showed bulldozers ripping up the asphalt from streets in the city. Widespread damage was reported to infrastructure.

Witnesses said the Israeli forces had withdrawn from Al-Farra refugee camp in Tubas where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, including two teenagers according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Later on Wednesday residents told AFP that troops were leaving the Tulkarem area as well. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

AFP correspondents said clashes were ongoing in Jenin.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group said at least 45 people had been detained in the West Bank since Wednesday. An Israeli military spokesman said "10 wanted individuals were arrested".

Jordan's King Abdullah II appealed for a ceasefire in Gaza to stop the spread of violence and Iran's foreign ministry condemned the Israeli operation as a "continuation of the genocide in the Gaza Strip".

The United Nations on Wednesday said at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war erupted on 7 October.

Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, when it also seized the Gaza Strip, from which it withdrew troops and settlers in 2005 but later imposed a crippling blockade followed by a siege shortly after the 7 October attack.

In Gaza, the Israeli military said it had "eliminated dozens" of militants in a day of combat and strikes.

The civil defence agency in the Hamas-ruled territory said Israeli shelling killed five displaced Palestinians in a tent east of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city.

Hamas's 7 October attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The war has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Palestinians militants on 7 October also seized 251 hostages, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Increasingly desperate families of the hostages gathered at the border with Gaza on Thursday to deliver symbolic messages to their loved ones.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of the hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, yelled into a microphone: "I love you, stay strong, survive."

She later told AFP that the war had "gone on way too long" and there was "suffering on all sides... it has to stop".

In central Gaza, some Palestinians returned to parts of Deir al-Balah after the military had amended a previous evacuation order.

Mohamed Abu Thuria told AFP he had "found massive destruction everywhere". Another displaced Gazans back in Deir al-Balah, Ibrahim al-Tabaan, said: "We lost everything."