Israel raids West Bank as Gaza conflict rages on

JENIN/GAZA — Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank, where its forces killed five Palestinian militants on Thursday in a second day of operations that have killed 14 in total, as the Gaza conflict showed no signs of abating.

"Following exchanges of fire, the forces eliminated five terrorists who had hidden inside a mosque "in Tulkarm on Thursday morning, the military said.

On Wednesday, the military said it killed nine militants in simultaneous raids in several West Bank cities and refugee camps, where violence has surged during the conflict.

The conflict in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's health ministry, while Israel's offensive has caused widespread destruction and displacement.

Early on Wednesday, Israel launched coordinated raids across four northern West Bank cities, Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarm, where the military has focused much of its recent operations.

Armored columns entered two refugee camps in Tulkarm and Tubas, as well as Jenin, where an Agence France-Presse correspondent said gunfire and explosions were heard into the evening.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Israeli operations took place "in close proximity to four hospitals "and at least some "have been surrounded", affecting the movement of medical teams.

Guterres calls for an "immediate cessation of these operations", another statement from his office said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia and headed home to "follow up on the latest developments", Palestinian official media said.

Jordan, which borders the West Bank and Israel, called for international action to stop "the radicalism of this Israeli government".

Jordan's King Abdullah II told visiting US lawmakers that a Gaza truce was needed "to stop the cycle of violence in the region", according to a royal statement.

Dangerous escalation

"Israel's expansion of its war against Palestinians in the occupied WB is a dangerous escalation that must be stopped," Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on X.

Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq saw it as a call to "expand the spiral of destruction and genocide".

Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian movement allied with Hamas which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, denounced an "open war" by Israel.

Violence also raged in the Gaza Strip, where the civil defense agency reported Israeli strikes killed at least 12 people, and in Lebanon, where Israel's military said it killed a "significant" Palestinian militant.

On Wednesday, Washington announced sanctions on an Israeli settler group that the State Department said was involved in violence against Palestinians and the forced displacement of some 250 villagers earlier this year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he viewed the new sanctions "with utmost severity".

In Gaza, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said "nearly 650 patients have fled" the area around Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al-Balah following Israeli evacuation orders.

Dujarric said Israeli forces shot at a UN humanitarian vehicle on Tuesday, hitting it 10 times, even though it was "part of a convoy that had been fully coordinated" with the military.

An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment.

The UN's World Food Programme said it was pausing its staff movements in Gaza "until further notice" after the "totally unacceptable" incident.

Mediation seeking an end to the conflict continued in Qatar where an Israeli delegation was present on Wednesday, said a source close to the negotiations.

In central Gaza's Nuseirat, Samia Baker said the makeshift displacement camp she now lives in "is the street of death".

"We have no water, the children have no food, no clothes, we have nothing," she said. "We appeal to the world to help us get out of this place. Our children are dying."

Agencies Via Xinhua