At least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Palestinian Health Ministry said while an Israeli police officer was also killed, according to Israeli officials.

Israel said its aircraft fired on Palestinian resistance members who had attacked troops in the city of Jenin.

"An Israeli occupation bombardment on a group of citizens killed six people in Jenin," said the Palestinian Authority-run Health Ministry, which is based in Ramallah.

The Palestinian ministry said the strike targeted people who had gathered at a public gathering spot. Eyewitnesses said the attack happened as Israeli forces were withdrawing from a raid.

Four of those killed were brothers, according to family members.

Mujahid Nazzal, a Palestinian doctor and first responder at the scene, told Reuters one of the dead was hit directly by a missile and the strike also seriously wounded a seventh person.

Another witness, Ahmed Suleiman, said, "The airstrike happened at the entrance of Jenin in an area called Martyr's Triangle. You can see the effects of the missile. Blood and body parts scattered everywhere."

Meanwhile, an Israeli border police officer was killed and others wounded when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device during operations in Jenin, the Israeli military and police said.

"She (officer) was in an operational vehicle that was hit by an explosive device," the force added.

A helicopter helped rescue them with covering fire, the military said, adding that an aircraft fired at a "... squad that hurled explosives and endangered our forces," and several people were killed."

The Jenin Brigade, an armed resistance group affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack on the Israeli security forces.

The West Bank had already seen its highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months before the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion of Israel.

Confrontations in the West Bank have risen sharply since Israeli forces launched their retaliatory offensive on Gaza, killing over 22,700 people, mostly women and children.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers over the past weeks and security forces have made thousands of arrests.