RAMALLAH (Reuters) – Israeli drones equipped with loudspeakers ordered people to leave their homes in Jenin on Thursday, residents said, as the military destroyed dozens of homes for the third day in a large operation in the West Bank town.

The operation, which involved large convoys of vehicles backed by helicopters and drones, was launched in the first week of a cease-fire in Gaza that saw the first exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in custody. in Israeli prisons since a brief ceasefire in November 2023.

Israeli officials said the operation in Jenin was aimed at what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in a refugee camp on the outskirts of the city, a major hub for Palestinian armed groups in several years.

“We must be ready to continue with the Jenin camp which will take it to a different place,” said Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the head of Israel’s military, in a statement.

Armored bulldozers dug up roads and hundreds of people left their homes in the camp, after residents said they had been ordered to evacuate.

“Yesterday, we didn’t want to leave, we were at home,” said 16-year-old Hussam Saadi. “Today, they sent a drone to our neighborhood, told us to leave the camp and they will blow it up.”

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

On Wednesday night, Israeli troops killed two gunmen barricaded inside a building in Burqin, on the outskirts of Jenin, after a shootout. The two are suspected of carrying out an attack near the Palestinian village of al-Funduq earlier this month, in which three Israelis were killed.

Both are claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, which has a strong presence in the refugee camp, a crowded town for descendants of Palestinians who fled, or were forced to, from their homes in the 1948 Middle East that war

In total since the start of the operation, 12 Palestinians have been killed and 40 others have been injured, Palestinian health officials said.

The raid, the third major operation by the Israeli military in Jenin in less than two years, drew warnings from France and Jordan against an escalation in the West Bank, which has seen a surge in violence since the start. in the war in Gaza.