Several Hamas fighters killed in large-scale Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank

He said Israeli forces killed three militants in an airstrike in Tulkarem and four in an airstrike in Al-Faraa. He said another five suspected militants had been arrested and the raids were the first phase of an even larger operation. Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in Jenin, according to Palestinian officials.

Hamas announced that ten of its fighters were killed in the West Bank on Wednesday, including three of the four men killed in Jenin. It was initially unclear whether the fourth was also a fighter. The military said all of the dead were militants.

Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told Palestinian radio that Israeli forces had surrounded the city, blocked entrances and exits and access to hospitals, and destroyed the camp's infrastructure.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said Israeli forces had blocked access roads to a hospital with earthen ramparts and surrounded other medical facilities in Jenin. Shoshani said the military was trying to prevent militants from seeking refuge in hospitals.

An Associated Press reporter saw army vehicles blocking all entrances to the Al-Faraa camp. Military jeeps and bulldozers drove into the camp, and soldiers patrolled the alleys on foot. Water seeped into the destroyed streets from houses where tanks and pipes had been damaged by fighting. Shots rang out every few minutes.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz drew comparisons with Gaza and called for similar measures in the West Bank.

“We must deal with the threat in the same way we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and all necessary steps. This is a war in every sense and we must win it,” he wrote on Platform X.

Shoshani said there were no plans to evacuate civilians.

Hamas called on Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up, calling the attacks part of a larger plan to expand the war in Gaza and blaming the escalation on US support for Israel. The militant group called on security forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and working with Israel to “join the holy struggle of our people.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the attacks as a “serious escalation” and called on the US to intervene. Abbas later announced that he would cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and return to the West Bank, where his government is based.

According to the Palestinian ministry, at least 652 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the Gaza war began more than 10 months ago. Most died in attacks that often resulted in shootouts with militants.

Israel says the operations are necessary to crush Hamas and other militant groups. Attacks on Israelis have increased since the war began.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the bodies of seven people were taken to a hospital in Tubas, another West Bank city, and two others to a hospital in Jenin. The ministry identified the two killed in Jenin as 25-year-old Qassam Jabarin and 39-year-old Asem Balout. Hamas described Jabarin as a fighter and said two other fighters, Mohammed Abu Zumeiro and Ahmed al-Sous, were killed in Jenin.

In the 1967 Middle East war, Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for a future state.

Israel has built numerous settlements in the West Bank, where over 500,000 Jewish settlers live. The settlers have Israeli citizenship, while the three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule. The Palestinian Authority exercises limited control over the population centers.

The war in Gaza broke out when Hamas-led militants swept into southern Israel and wreaked havoc in army bases and farming communities, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. The militants still hold 108 hostages, about a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a ceasefire in November.

Israel responded with an offensive that, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, although the number of militants has not been disclosed. About 90 percent of Gaza's population has been displaced, often multiple times, and Israeli bombings and ground operations have caused enormous destruction.

At least 24 people, including five women and five children, were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza overnight and on Wednesday, according to Palestinian health officials. AP reporters in two hospitals confirmed the death toll.

In one attack, tents of displaced people were hit near the central city of Deir al-Balah. Eight people were killed, including two brothers aged 6 and 17.

“He's alive!” her mother cried as the teenager's body was taken to the morgue. Later, she sobbed and cradled the two in her arms.

Israel says it tries not to harm civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants fight in densely populated residential areas. The military rarely comments on isolated strikes in Gaza, which often kill women and children.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying for months to broker a ceasefire that would result in the release of the remaining hostages, but talks have stalled as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised “total victory” over Hamas and the militant group has demanded a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from the area.

After days of talks in Egypt there were no signs of a breakthrough, so negotiations will move to Qatar this week.

___

Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo and Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s war coverage at