Jenin (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israel pressed on with a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank for a fourth day on Saturday, as fierce fighting raged in the nearly 11-month Gaza war.

As clashes and explosions persisted in the northern city of Jenin, the Israeli military said two Palestinians were killed while preparing to carry out bombings overnight in the south of the West Bank.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war, hailed a “heroic operation” at what it called a “sensitive time” during the Israeli operations in the north.

Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, similarly said it “congratulates” the perpetrators of what it called a “coordinated attack”.

The Israeli army described a vehicle explosion at a petrol station in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc as “an attempted car bombing by a terrorist” who was later killed.

An army officer “was moderately injured, and a reservist officer responsible for the security in a nearby community sustained minor injuries,” it said in a statement.

In the second incident, the head of security in the Israeli settlement of Karmei Zur engaged in a car chase with a “terrorist” who had infiltrated the settlement compound, leading to a collision and “the terrorist being neutralised shortly after”, the statement said.

“During the confrontation, an explosive device in the terrorist’s car detonated,” it added.

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since Wednesday, most of them militants, in simultaneous raids in several cities in the northern West Bank.

Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camps, long a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.

On Saturday morning, an AFP photographer in Jenin heard ongoing clashes in the city, where the streets were mostly empty save for armoured vehicles, including one that blocked access to the government hospital.

“I think it’s the worst day since the start of the raid… We hear from time to time clashes and sometimes there is big bombing,” said the hospital’s director, Wisam Bakr.

Water and electricity were cut off from the hospital during the raid, forcing it to rely on a generator and water tank, he told AFP.

- Bodies pulled from rubble -

Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s October 7 attack.

The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.

Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

Of the 20 Palestinians reported dead since Wednesday, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have said at least 13 were members of their armed wings.

The dead included an 82-year-old man, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, and two teenagers, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which said another 55 had been wounded since the launch of the Israeli operation.

In Gaza, Israel pushed forward with its deadly offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said its rescuers pulled 29 bodies from the rubble since dawn and transported dozens of wounded to hospitals across the devastated Palestinian territory.

On Friday, a medical source at the southern Nasser Hospital said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

Israeli shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed two people on the same day, the civil defence agency said.

- Pause for polio vaccinations -

Britain, France and Spain expressed concerns Friday about the Israeli operation in the West Bank, with the latter denouncing “an outbreak of violence which is clearly unacceptable”.

The World Health Organization said Israel had agreed to at least three days of “humanitarian pauses” in parts of Gaza, starting Sunday, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the territory recorded its first case of polio in a quarter of a century.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the measures were “not a ceasefire”.

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The war has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

“In August, the number of humanitarian missions and movements within Gaza that have been denied access by Israeli authorities has almost doubled, compared with July,” the UN humanitarian office said on Friday.

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