Seven Palestinians martyred in Israeli drones strike in West Bank

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli forces hit the city of Jenin with drone strikes during an overnight operation on Monday that included hundreds of troops and set off a gunbattle lasting into the day, martyring at least seven people in a major escalation of West Bank violence.

With drones clearly audible overhead and the sounds of gunfire and explosives heard across the city hours after the strikes, the Jenin Brigades, a unit made up of militant groups based in the city's crowded refugee camp, said it was engaging the Israeli forces and shot down one of the unmanned aircraft.

At times during the morning, at least six drones could be seen circling over the city and the adjoining camp, a densely packed area housing around 14,000 refugees in less than half a square kilometre.

The camp has been at the heart of an escalating spiral of violence across the West Bank that has triggered mounting alarm from Washington to the Arab world, without so far opening the way to a resumption of political negotiations that have been stalled for almost a decade.

For more than a year, army raids in cities like Jenin have become routine, while there have been a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis and rampages by Jewish settler mobs against Palestinian villages.

"What is going on in the refugee camp is real war," said Palestinian ambulance driver, Khaled Alahmad, describing Monday's fighting. "There were strikes from the sky targeting the camp, every time we drive in, around five to seven ambulances and we come back full with injured people."

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed at least seven people had been killed and 27 wounded in Jenin, while another man was killed in the city of Ramallah after being shot in the head at a checkpoint.

The Israeli military said its forces struck a building that served as a command centre for fighters from the Jenin Brigades in what it described as an extensive counterterrorism effort aimed at destroying infrastructure and disrupting militants from using the refugee camp as a base.

"The resistance will confront the enemy and defend the Palestinian people and all options are open to strike the enemy and respond to its aggression on Jenin," said a statement from the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group in Gaza.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the operation 'a new war crime against our defenceless people.'