The Israeli military said a well-known local commander was among five militants killed after having "hidden inside a mosque" Thursday as it pressed ahead with the biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in more than 20 years.
Israeli troops launched the sweeping raids early Wednesday, raising international alarm as the U.S. ally wages an assault on the Gaza Strip and engages in a standoff with Iran that has fueled fears of a widening regional conflict.
The five deaths Israeli authorities reported in the city of Tulkarem, including that of a local commander, added to nine militants they said were killed the day before. Palestinian health officials had said Wednesday that at least 11 people had been killed, while Hamas had said 10 of its fighters have been killed across multiple locations, according to The Associated Press.
In video shared on social media and geolocated by NBC News, Israeli troops move through a cloud of smoke in eastern Jenin, with birds appearing to scatter as gunshots ring out.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called the violence "deeply concerning" in a post on X as he called for "an immediate cessation" of Israel's operations in the territory.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz drew international criticism when he said Israeli forces must implement measures similar to those being carried out in Gaza in the West Bank. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, warned operations there cannot become an “extension” of Israel’s deadly monthslong offensive in Gaza.
Borrell warned that Katz’s comments threatened “to fuel further instability” in a region where the international community has sought to avoid an all-out war amid warnings from Iran that it plans to retaliate after the high-profile assassinations of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
Borrell said Thursday he had asked members of the bloc whether they wanted to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers for “hate messages” against Palestinians that he said had violated international law. The U.S. announced new sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Wednesday.
The Israeli operation entered its second day.
Israeli authorities said in a statement Thursday morning that troops had killed at least five militants "following exchanges of fire." They identified one of them as Muhhamad Jabber, known as “Abu Shujaa," who they said was the "head of a terrorist network in Nur Shams."
They said Jabber was involved in "carrying out numerous terror attacks," including a shooting attack in which an Israeli man, Amnon Muchtar, was killed in June.
Jabber became a hero among some this year after he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at a funeral for other militants, where he was lifted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd, the AP reported. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed his death.
Sweeping raids in Jenin, Tulkarem and Al-Faraa appeared to be the largest Israeli operation in the West Bank since what Israeli officials called Operation Defensive Shield during the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising.
Israel has conducted near-daily raids in the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967, since it launched its offensive in Gaza. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials, since Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage.
Israel's offensive in the coastal enclave also continued Thursday, with the Israel Defense Forces saying its troops had killed dozens of militants and found large quantities of weapons in central and southern Gaza over the past day.
The IDF said in a statement that one of those killed was Osama Jadallah, a commander in the Islamic Jihad’s intelligence unit, who the IDF said took part in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Many of the families of those who remain hostage in Gaza have sought to raise the pressure for a cease-fire deal that would end fighting in Gaza and lead to the releases of their loved ones. But so far, renewed talks have failed to yield a deal.
On Thursday, some of the relatives of the hostages took part in a protest near the enclave's border — but the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents hostage families, said that "in their immense grief, the families broke through the fence, running towards the Gaza border."
Israeli security forces told them turn back, and they returned to the nearby Nirim kibbutz, the forum said.
The IDF confirmed that several Israeli civilians had approached the border of area of the Gaza Strip but said they did not cross the border fence.
"The forces have removed the civilians, and there is no concern about crossing into Gaza," it said.
