Residents of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were assessing the damage on Saturday in the wake of a two-day raid by Israeli forces, which were pressing on elsewhere in the territory amid signs that fighting with Palestinian militant groups could spread.
In the Nur Shams neighborhood — which was a focus of the raid — Israeli bulldozers had chewed up large chunks of the roads, and many homes were still without running water, said Suleiman Zuhairi, a retired Palestinian Authority official from the area.
Israeli troops were continuing their operation — which began overnight on Wednesday — in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, while two episodes farther south prompted fears that the violence was worsening.
Late on Friday night, three Israeli soldiers were wounded after a car exploded in a gas station near a major junction between Jerusalem and Hebron, according to the Israeli authorities. The Israeli military said that another assailant was killed while trying to attack the settlement of Karmei Tzur.
Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks left 1,200 dead in Israel, prompting the war in Gaza, Israel has feared a similar attack from the occupied West Bank, where roughly three million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule. The Israeli military has stepped up its raids there in an attempt to head off the threat, arresting thousands.
The Israeli military says its current raids are targeting strongholds of Palestinian armed groups. Israeli officials said that more than 150 shooting and explosive attacks on Israelis had been planned from the Jenin and Tulkarm areas over the past year. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and civilians since October in the West Bank, according to the United Nations.
On Friday, Tulkarm’s residents held a funeral procession in absentia for Muhammad Jaber, a militant commander killed by Israeli forces during the raid. The Israeli authorities are still holding Mr. Jaber’s body, according to his family.
Mr. Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, had become a cult figure in the Nur Shams neighborhood, where he lived, for his armed struggle against Israel. The Israeli military said he had been involved in “numerous terror attacks.”
A relative of Mr. Jaber, Neyaz Zendiq, said that he had spent much of the past few days huddled in his home in Nur Shams alongside his family. Mr. Zendiq’s son Jihad was killed during another Israeli raid in June.
Mr. Jaber was beloved by the camp’s residents, Mr. Zendiq said. “He didn’t accept the humiliation,” Mr. Zendiq added, referring to the Israeli occupation.
But Mr. Zuhairi, the former official, said that Palestinians living in the camp — in search of a leader — had inflated Mr. Jaber into an “icon of struggle,” giving him a reputation that far exceeded his actual activities.