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Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians and wounded dozens more as the Jewish state deployed armed drones and ground troops in a major operation in the occupied West Bank.
The assault on a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin overnight was the latest escalation of violence that has led to almost daily Israeli raids in the territory and killed more than 100 people this year.
Israeli officials said the raid was launched to target a “joint operational command centre” of the Jenin Brigade militant group as part of an “extensive counter-terrorism effort”.
But a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas described the attack as a “new war crime”.
It was the second time that Israel has launched drone strikes in Jenin in under two weeks as Israeli forces use increasing firepower to target Palestinian militants. Israel had not previously deployed armed drones in the West Bank since 2006.
The Palestinian health ministry said that in addition to the seven fatalities on Monday, at least 40 people were wounded.
The refugee camp in Jenin, a city in the West Bank’s north-west, is densely populated with about 14,000 people. News agencies reported that multiple drones could be seen flying overhead as sounds of gunfire and explosions could be heard.
This year is on course to be the bloodiest for more than a decade in the West Bank amid fears that the escalation of violence could trigger a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising. According to UN data, which does not include the most recent violence, Israeli forces have killed 114 Palestinians in the West Bank so far this year, while Palestinians have killed 16 Israelis in the territory.
Palestinians want the West Bank to be the heart of a future state, but Israel has occupied the territory since 1967, and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has advanced plans to increase settlements across the territory since it took office in December.
Most of the international community considers the settlements to be illegal.
Netanyahu’s government includes religious Zionist settlers who want Israel to annex the West Bank and who have been urging the military to take a more aggressive approach in the territory.
As well as the Israeli raids in the West Bank there has been an increase in violence between Palestinians and Jewish settlers.
Two weeks ago, hundreds of settlers torched Palestinian cars and houses in the West Bank as part of a series of vigilante attacks that came after Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis and injured four more in an attack near a settlement.
That was the deadliest against Israelis since a shooting in a settlement in East Jerusalem in January, and came a day after Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including a 15-year-old, and wounded more than 90 during a raid on Jenin.
The Israeli raid triggered a multi-hour gun battle, during which the Jewish state deployed helicopter gunships.