JENIN, Nov 3 — Israeli forces today killed seven Palestinians in raids across the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, as violence surges in the occupied territory in tandem with the Gaza war.

It said three men aged between 17 and 26 were killed in the northern city of Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups and the target of frequent military incursions.

According to Palestinian news agency Wafa, two of them died when a drone strike hit a house in the city’s refugee camp.

The Israeli army today said its forces were "operating against Hamas” across the West Bank, with operations in Jenin and the northern city of Nablus.

In the southern city of Hebron, two more Palestinians aged 33 and 36 were killed during a military raid on Fawwar refugee camp, the ministry and Wafa said.

The army said troops had "responded with fire” when Palestinians hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at them as they seized "weapons manufacturing” equipment.

A sixth Palestinian, aged 29, died during an Israeli arrest operation in Qalandiya refugee camp between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, the ministry said.

In the early afternoon, the ministry said a 33-year-old Palestinian man was "killed by (Israeli) occupation bullets” in Budrus, a village west of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the Budrus shooting.

The ministry also said two other Palestinians had been shot dead in Jenin late on Thursday. An army spokesperson told AFP troops were conducting "counterterrorism activities” in the area without elaborating.

And it said a Palestinian hit by Israeli fire in Nablus on Wednesday had succumbed to his wounds.

Violence has surged across the West Bank for months and intensified further since the start of the war between Israel Gaza’s Hamas rulers, triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7 that killed 1,400 people, Israeli officials say.

Israel has hit back with a blistering assault that the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says has killed more than 9,200 people.

The United Nations Human Rights Office today said the situation in the West Bank had become "alarming and urgent”.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its forces regularly carry out raids on militants in the Palestinian territory.

Yesterday, three Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids in El-Bireh near Ramallah and the northern town of Qalqilya, and an Israeli was shot dead in a shooting attack near Einav settlement in the northwest of the territory.

More than 140 Palestinians have now been killed in clashes with Israeli troops or settlers since October 7, health ministry figures show. — AFP