Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank following the Israeli army’s large-scale military operation against militants in the region.

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in raids by Israeli forces on the Palestinian city of Jenin, one of the largest incursions into the occupied West Bank in 20 years.

More than 100 people were injured in the attack that included airstrikes, with the death toll likely to rise, the Palestinian health ministry said, according to the Independent.

On Tuesday, hundreds of Israeli troops continued to operate in the camp, seizing weapons and explosives and destroying tunnels and command posts, the army said. Israeli media reported that the army had arrested at least 120 suspected Palestinian militants since Monday. The Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank and three Arab countries with normalised ties with Israel – Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – condemned Israel’s incursion, as did the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

More than 140 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, part of more than a year-long spike in violence that has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the area in nearly two decades. Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 26 people. Israel says the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians militants and thwart attacks.

The Palestinians say such violence is inevitable in the absence of any political process with Israel and increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers. Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and people uninvolved in confrontations have also died.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.

Agencies