Hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones fitted with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the Israeli military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the occupied West Bank city.
The Israeli military launched a raid in the Jenin area the same week that a in Gaza started.
Since it , the operation has killed at least 12 Palestinians and injured 40 more around Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israeli officials said the Jenin operation, dubbed the 'Iron Wall', was aimed at what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in the refugee camp adjacent to the city, a major hub for armed Palestinian groups for years.
"We need to be prepared to continue in the Jenin camp that will bring it to a different place," Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the head of the Israeli military, said in a statement.
Armoured bulldozers have dug up roads, making movement in the city difficult, but hundreds of people left their homes in the camp, dragging suitcases or carrying plastic bags of their belongings after they said they heard messages to evacuate.
"Yesterday, we did not want to leave, we were at home," said 16-year-old Hussam Saadi.
"Today, they sent down a drone to our neighbourhood, telling us to leave the camp and that they will blow it up."
The Israeli military denied that it had told residents to leave their homes.
Palestinians leave Jenin refugee camp on the third day of Israeli's military operation in the West Bank city. Source: AAP, EPA / Alaa Badarneh
As the operation continued, the sound of gunfire and the constant buzz of drones flying overhead could be heard over the refugee camp.
In the city, there was little movement on the streets.
Footage released by the Israeli military showed troops detonating what appeared to be roadside explosives.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it killed two Palestinian militants near Jenin overnight.
The Israeli military launched a raid on the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank days after a ceasefire started in Gaza. Source: AAP, AP / Majdi Mohammed
Both were claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, which has a strong presence in the refugee camp, a crowded township for descendants of Palestinians who fled, or were forced, from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war.
Surge in West Bank violence
The raid, the third major operation by the Israeli military in Jenin in under two years, drew warnings from France and Jordan against an escalation in the West Bank, where violence has surged since the start of the war in Gaza.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 850 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Hamas-Israel war began.
During the same period, at least 29 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the territory, according to official Israeli figures.
The October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israel's history, resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures. Militants also took more than 200 people hostage, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the military has said are dead.
The attack sparked a devastating war in Gaza that has killed more than 47,200 people, according to Gaza's health ministry.
