Five Palestinian fighters killed in mosque as Israel's assault on West Bank continues | Israel-Gaza war

The Israeli military said it killed five Palestinian fighters at a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm in one of the biggest attacks on the occupied territories in months.

The total number of Palestinians killed in less than two days would make it the deadliest Israeli operation in the West Bank since October 7 and the Hamas attack in Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

The latest clashes came after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday he had formally asked the bloc's members to consider sanctions against some Israeli ministers over “hate messages” against Palestinians that he said violated international law.

Borrell did not name the Israeli ministers he was referring to, nor did he specify which embassies he was referring to. But in recent weeks he has publicly criticized Israel's Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for comments he described as “vicious” and “incitement to war crimes.”

The second day of the Israeli operation, which saw up to three brigades of troops deployed in several major West Bank cities and supported by helicopters, drones and armored personnel carriers, also saw raids in the northern city of Jenin and the Jordan Valley.

The Israeli operation comes against a backdrop of growing concern over the development of the already serious violence in the West Bank, which is being fuelled by the actions of right-wing extremist settlers and their supporters in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

In recent weeks, Israeli defense officials have expressed fears that the situation in the West Bank could escalate and the area could become a major new front in Israel's ongoing conflicts – even as the war in Gaza continues and tensions with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon remain high.

Hamas reiterated its calls for Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up, describing the raids as part of a larger plan to expand the war in Gaza. The militant group called on security forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to “join the holy struggle of our people.”

The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, also condemned the Israeli attacks, but his forces are not expected to intervene.

Referring to the recent attack on the West Bank, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X overnight: “This is a war in every sense, and we must win it.” He accused Iran of working to destabilize Jordan and build an eastern front against Israel through arms smuggling networks, as it has already done in Gaza and Lebanon.

According to Katz, in order to counter the threat of an Eastern front, Israel must “use all necessary means, including, in the event of heavy fighting, the ability to temporarily evacuate the population from one district to another in order to avert harm to the civilian population.”

Among those killed on Thursday was a local Islamic Jihad commander named Mohammed Jaber. According to Palestinian reports, soldiers dressed in civilian clothes entered the mosque, where a gun battle ensued.

Thursday's deaths came a day after Palestinian health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were killed in Wednesday's operations.

The ongoing operation came as UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on Israel to immediately end its military operation in the northern West Bank. “Recent developments in the occupied West Bank, including Israel's launch of large-scale military operations, are deeply worrying,” Guterres wrote on X.

The armed wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah said in separate statements on Wednesday that their gunmen had detonated bombs against Israeli military vehicles in Jenin, Tulkarm and Far'a, a city in the Jordan Valley.

Borrell described his request to consider sanctions against Israeli ministers to reporters upon his arrival at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels: “I have started the process of asking member states whether they are considering [it] It would be appropriate to include some Israeli ministers in our sanctions list. [who] have spread unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians and proposed things that clearly violate international law.”

However, diplomats believe it is unlikely that the 27 EU members would achieve the necessary unanimity to impose sanctions on Israeli government ministers.

Agencies contributed to this report