Tel Aviv/Ramallah, 30 August 2024 (dpa/MIA) — At least 16 people have been killed in the course of a large-scale Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli reports indicated on Thursday.

According to Palestinian reports, most of the victims were militants.

They have been killed since the beginning of the operation in Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Ramallah said.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported 17 deaths, citing medical sources. According to Palestinian reports, two of those killed were civilians while several others were members of the military arm of Hamas and other extremist groups.

The information could not initially be independently verified.

Israel's army has so far reported seven Palestinian militants killed in Jenin, five in Tulkarem and a further four gunmen killed in Faraa near Tubas. Ten people have been detained, it added. Security forces also reportedly defused dozens of explosive devices and seized weapons.

According to the military, the operation in the Faraa refugee neighbourhood in the north of the Palestinian territory has now ended.

On Wednesday, Israel commenced a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank. An Israeli army spokesman justified the action, citing the significantly increased number of attacks on Israelis.

At the same time, extremist Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank has also increased.

Dozens killed in the Gaza Strip

Dozens of people have been killed in ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.

A total of 68 people were killed within 24 hours, the Gaza health authority, whose figures don't distinguish between civilians and combatants, said.

The Israeli military said it forces had eliminated dozens of militants in close combat and in airstrikes during the past day, including a commander of the intelligence unit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militia.

It was not possible to independently verify the claims by either side.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, at least 40,602 people have been killed and 98,855 injured in the Palestinian coastal area, according to Gaza health authorities. 

IDF to investigate reports it fired on UN aid vehicle in Gaza

The Israeli military on Thursday said it is investigating reports that its soldiers fired on a United Nations humanitarian vehicle in Gaza.

"A report was received regarding a UN vehicle that was damaged while driving along the humanitarian corridor. No injuries were reported," the IDF said in a statement. "The incident is under review."

The incident occurred on Tuesday and on Wednesday, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the vehicle's movement "had been fully coordinated with the IDF," but it "was struck 10 times by IDF gunfire."

"Whether the information wasn't passed down, whether it was deliberate, whether there was another reason - those are explanations we would like to get," Dujarric said.

The two UN staff members in the vehicle were not harmed as they were travelling in an armoured car, according to the spokesman.

The vehicle was provided by the World Food Programme which temporarily suspended the movement of its staff in Gaza in response to the incident.

The IDF said it "sees great importance in the humanitarian effort and the protection of humanitarian workers."

Pressure on Israeli government

Meanwhile relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas broke through the border fence to the Gaza Strip during a protest, media reports said on Thursday.

Dozens of people initially gathered at the border to call out to their abducted loved ones on the other side using loudspeakers, hoping to be heard, Israeli TV channel Channel 13 reported.

Some then crossed the border and ran towards the Gaza Strip, but they subsequently turned back at the request of security forces, the report said.

The demonstrators carried signs with pictures of the hostages. According to the report, the mother of an abducted soldier addressed her daughter, saying: "I'm sorry that we haven't managed yet, but I promise you that you will come back."

Opposition leader says Netanyahu knew of Hamas' plans

On the political front, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was briefed, as he was, about the Hamas threat before the militant movement attacked on October 7.

"I want to refute the statement that is made time and time again by the current government that, somehow, the political echelon was not aware that Hamas was not deterred," Lapid told the Jerusalem Post in a story published on Thursday.

"It was indeed informed. I was informed," he said, adding that the intelligence material he saw "was of course, also seen by the prime minister and ministers of the Cabinet."

"It was clear what they [Hamas] wanted," he said.

Lapid said he attended a security briefing on August 21, 2023, with Netanyahu and military adviser Major General Avi Gil who warned about Iran's so-called "axis of resistance" - proxy fronts in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.

He said he thought the information was "extraordinary" but to him Netanyahu "seemed bored and indifferent to the subject and did not comment on it."

Netanyahu's right-wing conservative Likud party shot back at Lapid.

"Yair Lapid is lying again," it said, adding that Netanyahu had received no warning whatsoever before October 7, when Hamas invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.

Since then, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed amid the fighting in Gaza and 635 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations, confrontations or their own attacks in the occupied West Bank, according to the Health Ministry in the West Bank.