TULKAREM, Palestine

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, said Thursday that its fighters engaged in armed clashes with Israeli forces that penetrated the Jenin refugee camp and the city of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.

In a statement, the brigades said its members were actively fighting “with the (Israeli) occupying forces in Jenin and Tulkarem using firearms and explosive devices.”

The statement added that the fighters “detonated more than 10 explosive devices against the vehicles of the invading forces.”

On Wednesday, the Israeli army launched a major military operation in the northern West Bank, the largest in two decades, killing 16 Palestinians, according to Palestinian figures.

Earlier on Thursday, a military spokesperson, Ella Waweya, told Anadolu that the army’s operation “may continue for several days and possibly longer.”

“The operation will continue as long as necessary to achieve its security goals, meaning that we might witness confrontations for several more days and possibly longer if required,” she said.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank amid a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 670 Palestinians have since been killed, nearly 5,400 others injured and over 10,300 arrested in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio