JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) -- Israeli forces on Thursday killed nine Palestinians -- including at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman -- in the deadliest single incident in the occupied West Bank in two decades, Palestinian officials said. The raid prompted Palestinian leaders to cut security ties with Israel, a move that could lead to more violence.
The Israeli military also fatally shot a 22-year-old Palestinian later in a separate incident.
The raid in the Jenin refugee camp increases the risk of a major flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian fighting, poses a test for Israel's new hard-line government and casts a shadow on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's expected trip to the region next week.
Raising the stakes, the Palestinian Authority said it would halt the ties that its security forces maintain with Israel in a shared effort to contain Islamic militants. Previous threats have been short-lived, in part because of the benefits the authority enjoys from the relationship and also due to U.S. and Israeli pressure to maintain it.
The PA already has limited control over scattered enclaves in the West Bank, and almost none over militant strongholds like the Jenin camp. But the announcement could pave the way for Israel to step up operations it says are needed to prevent attacks.
Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, threatened revenge for the raid. Violent escalations in the West Bank have previously triggered retaliatory rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces in the West Bank and on the Gaza frontier went on heightened alert. Palestinians filled the streets, chanting in solidarity with Jenin, and President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning. In the refugee camp, residents dug a mass grave for the dead.
PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Abbas had decided to cut security coordination in "light of the repeated aggression against our people, and the undermining of signed agreements," referring to commitments from the Oslo peace process in the 1990s. He also said the Palestinians planned to file complaints with the U.N. Security Council, International Criminal Court and other international bodies.
The PA last cut security coordination with Israel in 2020, over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's drive to annex the occupied West Bank, which would make a future Palestinian state all but impossible. But six months later, the PA resumed cooperation, signaling the financial importance of the relationship and the Palestinians' relief at the election of President Joe Biden.
Barbara Leaf, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, said the administration was deeply concerned about the situation and that civilian casualties reported in Jenin were "quite regrettable." But she also said the Palestinian announcement to suspend security ties was a mistake.
"Obviously, we don't think this is the right step to take at this moment," she told reporters, saying the Palestinian vow to bring the matter to the U.N. and the International Criminal Court was problematic.
"We want to see them move back in the other direction," she said, adding: "They need to engage with each other."
There have been no serious peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in well over a decade.
Thursday's gunbattle that left nine dead and 20 wounded erupted when Israel's military conducted a rare daytime operation in the Jenin camp that it said was meant to prevent an imminent attack on Israelis. The camp, where the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group has a major foothold, has been a focus of near-nightly Israeli arrest raids.
Hamas' armed wing claimed four of the dead as members, while Islamic Jihad said three others belonged to the group. An earlier statement from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia loosely affiliated with Abbas' secular Fatah party, claimed one of the dead was a fighter named Izz al-Din Salahat, but it was unclear if he was among those seven militants.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the 61-year-old woman killed as Magda Obaid, and the Israeli military said it was looking into reports of her death.
The Israeli military circulated aerial video it said was taken during the battle, showing what appeared to be Palestinians on rooftops hurling stones and firebombs on Israeli forces below. At least one Palestinian can be seen opening fire from a rooftop.
Later in the day, Israeli forces fatally shot a 22-year-old and wounded two others, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as Palestinians confronted Israeli troops north of Jerusalem to protest Thursday's raid. Israel's paramilitary Border Police said they opened fire on Palestinians who launched fireworks at them from close range.
Tensions have soared since Israel stepped up raids in the West Bank last spring, following a series of Palestinian attacks.
Israel's new national security minister, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who seeks to grant legal immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot Palestinians, posted a video of himself beaming triumphantly and congratulating security forces.
The raid left a trail of destruction in Jenin. A two-story building, apparently the operation's target, was a charred wreck. The military said it entered the building to detonate explosives.
Palestinian Health Minister May Al-Kaila said paramedics struggled to reach the wounded during the fighting, while Akram Rajoub, the governor of Jenin, said the military prevented emergency workers from evacuating them.
Both accused the military of firing tear gas at the pediatric ward of a hospital, causing children to choke. Video at the hospital showed women carrying children into a corridor.
The military said forces closed roads to aid the operation, which may have complicated rescue efforts, and that tear gas had likely wafted into the hospital from nearby clashes.
The Israeli rights group B'Tselem said Thursday marked the single bloodiest West Bank incursion since 2002, at the height of an intense wave of violence known as the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which left scars still visible in Jenin.
"We ask that the international community help the Palestinians against this extremist right-wing government and protect our citizens," said Rajoub, the Jenin governor.
Palestinians clash with Israeli forces following an army raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest days in months of unrest. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest a militant grouping linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has major foothold in the camp. A gun battle erupted, during which the military said it was targeting militants involved in planning and carrying out attacks on Israelis. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
A masked Palestinian demonstrator burns tires in a protest against a deadly Israeli army raid at Aida Refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. During the raid in the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest days of fighting in years. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest militants when a gun battle erupted. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinians clash with Israeli forces following an army raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest days in months of unrest. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest a militant grouping linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has major foothold in the camp. A gun battle erupted, during which the military said it was targeting militants involved in planning and carrying out attacks on Israelis. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian woman, identified as Magda Obaid, 60, during her funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Palestinian health officials said Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including the Palestinian woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in one of the deadliest days in months of unrest. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest a militant grouping linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has a major foothold in the camp. A gun battle erupted, during which the military said it was targeting militants involved in planning and carrying out attacks on Israelis. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Palestinians clash with Israeli forces following an army raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest days in months of unrest. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest a militant grouping linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has major foothold in the camp. A gun battle erupted, during which the military said it was targeting militants involved in planning and carrying out attacks on Israelis. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Israeli military vehicles are seen during an army raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest days in months of unrest. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest a militant grouping linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has major foothold in the camp. A gun battle erupted, during which the military said it was targeting militants involved in planning and carrying out attacks on Israelis. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian woman, identified as Magda Obaid, 60, during her funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Palestinian health officials said Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including the Palestinian woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in one of the deadliest days in months of unrest. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest a militant grouping linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has a major foothold in the camp. A gun battle erupted, during which the military said it was targeting militants involved in planning and carrying out attacks on Israelis. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Palestinian demonstrators burn tires in a protest against a deadly Israeli army raid at Aida Refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. During the raid in the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest days of fighting in years. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest militants when a gun battle erupted. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian rescuers inspect the site of a damaged building following an Israeli forces raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others during a raid in the flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest days of fighting in years. The Israeli military said it was conducting an operation to arrest militants when a gun battle erupted. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)