JENIN, (Palestinian Territories): Israeli forces killed eight Palestinians in a large-scale operation Monday in the occupied West Bank in what the army labelled an “extensive counterterrorism effort” involving drone strikes and hundreds of troops.

The raid launched under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government targeted the northern city of Jenin and was the biggest in the West Bank for years, featuring armoured vehicles, army bulldozers and drones.

Firefights and explosions rocked the city and adjacent refugee camp, a militant stronghold, as Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers and smoke from blasts and burning barricades darkened the sky, an AFP correspondent said.

“There is bombing from the air and an invasion on the ground,” said Mahmoud al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin.

“Several houses and sites have been bombed... smoke is rising from everywhere.”

Eight people were killed and 50 wounded, 10 seriously, the Palestinian health ministry said — exceeding the toll of seven dead in an Israeli raid in Jenin two weeks ago which saw the rare use of helicopter missile fire.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said the Israeli army had launched “an open war against the people of Jenin”.

Monday’s operation featured “brigade-level” troop numbers, said army spokesman Richard Hecht, while Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told reporters that “we are striking the terrorism hub with great strength”.

The army said soldiers and gunmen exchanged fire at a mosque in the Jenin camp and that weapons and explosives were later found in the building.

Jenin resident Badr Shagoul told AFP: “I saw them taking bulldozers into the camp, they were destroying buildings ... These were people’s homes.”

At a hospital morgue some bodies were covered in blankets and others were heavily bandaged, an AFP correspondent reported, adding that the fighting continued late Monday.

“We have many injured from explosives dropped from airplanes and many having bullet injuries,” nurse Qasem Benighader said.

“In the last five years this is the worst raid.”

Israel had already stepped up operations in the northern West Bank, which has seen a recent spate of attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence targeting Palestinians.

Jenin camp resident Mahmoud Hawashin called the situation “catastrophic”, and predicted that “for every action there is a reaction.