Israeli raid kills nine in Palestinian city amid escalating attacks

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli forces conducted a massive raid on the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank on Thursday, killing at least nine people in a lengthy shootout that left extensive destruction and was among the deadliest single operation in nearly two decades.

The Israeli military described Thursday's raid as a “counterterrorism operation” against Islamic Jihad militants involved in attacks on Israelis, which spiked this past spring and led to more than a dozen deaths.

The raid raised fears of expanding violence as Israel struggles to contain a growing insurgency led by young Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. It also comes weeks after Benjamin Netanyahu became Israel's prime minister once again, heading the most rightwing cabinet in the country's history, which includes Jewish supremacists who have incited violence against Palestinians and called for the annexation of the West Bank.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) said Thursday it was suspending security coordination with Israel in response to the violence. The PA's cooperation with Israel - which Israel relies on to conduct West Bank raids - is widely despised by Palestinians.

Seven of the dead in Jenin were 30 years old or younger, including an eighteen-year-old, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank. A civilian man and a 61year-old woman were also killed in the violence in the densely populated urban refugee camp, Palestinian officials said.

Twenty other people were injured, four seriously, the Health Ministry said on Facebook, noting that most of the injured were hit by live fire in the chest or head.