Hamas militants killed as Israel enters West Bank city

Jenin governor says city cut off, with no access to hospitals

- JULIA FRANKEL AND NASSER NASSER

Relatives and friends of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas call for their release outside the kibbutz Be'eri, in southern Israel on Wednesday.

Israeli forces launched a large operation in the occupied West Bank overnight and into Wednesday, killing at least 10 Hamas militants, carrying out arrests and sealing off the volatile city of Jenin.

The ongoing operation was among the largest in the West Bank in months, and a reminder that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict extends far beyond the war in Gaza that began with Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. Israel says it is rooting out West Bank militants to prevent attacks, while Palestinians fear it intends to broaden the war and expel them from territories they want for a future state.