Several Palestinians have been killed or injured in raids across the territory that have sparked global condemnation.
The Israeli army has called in reinforcements as it intensifies its assault on the occupied West Bank for a second day.
At least 12 people have been killed since the start of the operation across the territory, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Thursday.
At least 20 Palestinians, including children, have been imprisoned so far by Israeli forces, according to the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, which warned Thursday that the number could rise as raids continue.
In the Nur Shams refugee camp, the Israeli army said on Thursday it had killed five Palestinian fighters who were hiding in a mosque.
Among them was Tulkarem Battalion commander Mohamed Jaber, also known as Abu Shuja'a, according to the army. Abu Shuja'a had directed the shooting and killing of an Israeli man in Qalqilya in June.
Israeli raids began on Wednesday in the areas of Jenin, Tulkarem and the Far'a refugee camp near Tubas in the biggest assault there in 20 years, as the military says it is targeting “armed terrorists who pose a threat to security forces.”
Reporting from Tulkarem, Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim said that while the Israeli military has been launching daily attacks on the territory, “this one is on a different scale” as its forces “have attacked four refugee camps at the same time”.
“There is a lot of fear and anxiety among residents,” he said.
Operations were expanded overnight to south of Bethlehem, to the Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, the city of Nablus and the village of Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah, according to Wafa.
Ibrahim also said the escalation “comes as no surprise” to Palestinians “who have seen the incursions intensify and expand every day since October 7.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that since Israel's war on Gaza began on October 7, 136 Palestinians have been killed and 41 wounded in Israeli airstrikes.
All but one of the killings occurred in the northern governorates of the occupied West Bank.
In a statement, Amnesty International condemned Israel's military strike as a “horrific escalation of lethal force.”
“These operations are likely to result in increased forced displacement, destruction of critical infrastructure and collective punishment measures, which have been key pillars of Israel’s apartheid system against Palestinians and its illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had already suggested on Wednesday that Palestinians be forcibly displaced.
He wrote in X that addressing the threat of “terrorist infrastructure” in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps by all means necessary includes “intense combat” and “in some cases… allowing the population to temporarily evacuate from one neighborhood to another within the refugee camp.”
Israel's temporary evacuation orders have been used repeatedly in Gaza, displacing tens of thousands of people into so-called “humanitarian safe zones” that are then attacked by the military.
Palestinian rights groups, including the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, warned Thursday of Israeli tactics in the territory that “mirror” those used in “Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.”
