Israeli troops killed at least five Palestinians sheltering inside a mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem on Thursday.

The Israeli military alleged that the deceased were members of Palestinian resistance groups, hiding inside the place of worship.

The operation, one of the largest assaults on the occupied territory for months, began in the early hours of Wednesday with hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones and armored personnel carriers raiding the flashpoint cities of Tulkarem, Jenin and areas in the Jordan Valley.

There was also a complete network outage at Jawwal, one of the two main telecommunications companies in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Reuters witness.

Palestinian health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were killed in Wednesday's operations.

In Jenin on Thursday, bulldozers edged along empty streets as the sound of drones pierced the sky, while Israeli troops remained stationed in front of the city's main hospital, searching ambulances.

The military on Wednesday blocked off access to the hospital with earth mounds and was checking ambulances entering to prevent fighters from seeking refuge there.

The armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah factions said in separate statements Wednesday their members were detonating bombs against Israeli military vehicles in Jenin, Tulkarem and Far'a, a town in the Jordan Valley.

Israel claimed one of the five killed in the Tulkarem mosque was Muhhamad Jabber, known as "Abu Shujaa," the head of a network of resistance members in the Nur Shams refugee camp next to the city.

Clashes in the West Bank have escalated since Israel's war with Hamas resistance members began in Gaza nearly 11 months ago.

Escalating clashes

Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to Palestinian factions there and has stepped up West Bank operations, while Jewish settlers have launched frequent vigilante-style attacks on Palestinian communities.

Referring to the latest West Bank assault, Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X overnight: "This is a war in every sense, and we must win it."

He accused Iran of working to destabilize Jordan and establish an eastern front against Israel, like it has done in Gaza and in Lebanon, where Israel has been trading almost daily fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

To address the eastern front, Katz said Israel would have to use "all necessary means, including, in cases of intense combat, allowing the population to temporarily evacuate from one neighborhood to another to prevent civilian harm."

In nearby Gaza, evacuation orders have displaced nearly all of the enclave's 2.3 million people multiple times, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease.

The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, which caused 1,200 deaths and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has since killed more than 40,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and demolished swathes of the enclave.

Internationally mediated talks to end the conflict continue.

Since the war on Gaza began, thousands of Palestinians have been arrested in West Bank and East Jerusalem raids and more than 660 – fighters and civilians – have been killed, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.

At least 30 Israelis have been killed in attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank during the period, according to Israeli tallies.