TUBAS CITY, Palestine

The Israeli army imposed a curfew on Wednesday in the West Bank city of Tubas and displaced dozens of families in Tulkarem amid a major military operation in the area, according to local officials.

"Israeli forces are besieging Tubas from all directions, and sent military reinforcements into several neighborhoods in the city,” Governor Ahmed Al-Asaad told Anadolu.

He said the Israeli army has laid a siege around the Tubas Turkish Government Hospital, hindering the work of medical teams.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said early Wednesday that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in Tubas.

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinian families were forced to flee their homes by Israeli forces in Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.

"Dozens of families were forced by the army to evacuate their homes to turn them into military barracks, and deploy snipers on their roofs,” Deputy Governor Faisal Salameh told Anadolu.

He said several homes were raided, cell phones confiscated and residents detained for questioning.

“The Israeli army is continuing to destroy the infrastructure of the city’s refugee camp,” he said, accusing the military of turning the camp into “a place unfit for living.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it lost contact with five of its medics in the camp after they were held by the Israeli army.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank amid Israel’s devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,000 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

Nearly 700 people have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19 that 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 Ahmed Asmar in Ankara