Elderly woman among nine Palestinians killed in Israeli raid on refugee camp

Israeli forces have killed at least nine Palestinians including an elderly woman in a major raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to local reports.

In what Palestinian officials said was the deadliest attack on the camp since 2002, Israeli forces entered the site on Thursday morning targeting members of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

The Israel Defence Forces [IDF] said the raid was launched to prevent a terrorist attack being plotted by members of the group inside the camp.

According to the Palestinians, Israeli forces fired tear gas into the paediatric ward of a hospital and prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded. Israel did not immediately respond to the claims.

The Palestinian health ministry said that Magda Obaid, 60, and two young men aged 24 and 26 were among the dead.

Last year, Israel launched an ongoing operation in the northern West Bank called Break The Wave, targeting Islamic Jihad militants following a series of deadly attacks on Israeli civilians.

In recent months, the Jenin refugee camp, its surrounding area and the nearby city of Nablus have been plunged into turmoil as militants fight street battles with Israeli soldiers.

In one raid in early December the Israeli army shot dead a teenage girl on a roof in Jenin during a gun battle with Palestinian fighters.

In May, Shireen Abu Akleh, a respected Palestinian correspondent for al-Jazeera, was killed while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin.

Israel initially suggested that she had been killed by Palestinian militants, but later admitted there was a "high possibility" that an Israeli soldier had killed her.

Over the past month alone, 29 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces, including four children. Last year was also the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2006.

Tensions have risen over the Israeli army raids, which Israel says are necessary to protect its civilians, as well as the recent appointment of an ultra-nationalist Right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

A spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, said Thursday's raid was taking place amid "international silence".