Tel Aviv/Ramallah, 4 July 2023 (dpa/MIA) - At least nine Palestinians were killed on Monday in an Israeli ground and air assault in Jenin, the first time in nearly two decades that the Jewish state has launched a major military offensive in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said late Monday that about 100 Palestinians were injured, with 20 of them in critical condition.

Israel considers the Jenin area a militant stronghold and a launch pad for attacks on Israelis.

Operation "Home and Garden," which Israel said was directed against "terrorist infrastructure," began in the early hours of Monday with drone strikes. Ground troops also moved in. The open-ended mission was still ongoing early Tuesday morning.

More than 1,000 soldiers were reportedly involved in the operation.

Jenin, in the northern West Bank, has seen frequent deadly confrontations between Israeli forces and militants over the years.

Much of the military campaign was said to be taking place in the Jenin refugee camp, which abuts the city and has about 17,000 residents.

Soldiers were confiscating weapons and explosives and had arrested several people.

Footage posted on social media showed people pouring out of their homes amid Israeli raids, but there were conflicting reports on Monday night about whether Israel had demanded the camp's residents to leave.

Palestinian media said that the Israeli army had ordered Palestinian families to get out. Israeli security officials denied that there had been such an order to evacuate, but that people were fleeing the fighting between soldiers and armed Palestinian militants.

Widespread power outages were reported in Jenin.

Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said the army does not want to occupy the city, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), but that Jenin cannot continue to be "a safe haven for terrorists."

Israel says 19 wanted Palestinians have fled to Jenin, less than 80 kilometres from Jerusalem, since September after attacks on Israelis.

A command and communications centre used as a weapons depot, a terrorist assembly point and observation post were among the sites hit in Jenin on Monday.

A theatre in the centre of Jenin reported that it had been struck.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli operation as a "new war crime" and called on the international community to "break its shameful silence and take serious action."

After a meeting on Monday evening, the PA announced that it would terminate its cooperation with Israel in security matters.

Similar announcements had been made by the PA on previous occasions but never fully implemented. The sides exchange intelligence to prevent terrorist attacks or coordinate major operations in the zones controlled solely by the PA.

Hamas, the militant Palestinian group which controls the Gaza Strip on the other side of Israel from the West Bank, has gained influence in Jenin in recent years with financial aid from Iran.

Hamas called for the mobilization of Palestinians in the West Bank on Monday and pledged support for the fighters in Jenin.

Since the beginning of the year, more then 140 Palestinians have been killed in confrontations with the Israeli military. In the same period, 22 Israelis, a Ukrainian woman and an Italian were killed.

Israel took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians claim the territories for their own state - with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Jenin camp was settled by Palestinian refugees evicted from their homes after the 1948 war between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Photo: epa