ISRAELI occupying forces struck targets in the West Bank today, killing at least five Palestinians and wounding 45 others, officials said.

During the clashes, Palestinian resistance fighters detonated a roadside bomb next to an Israeli military vehicle. 

The Israeli military said seven members of the paramilitary border police and the army suffered injuries.

The escalation was the latest in more than a year of near-daily violence by the Israelis towards the Palestinians in the West Bank.

The Israeli military said troops came under a “massive exchange of fire” during an arrest raid in Jenin and shot back at Palestinian gunmen.

The army said: “As the security forces exited the city, a military vehicle was hit by an explosive device, damaging the vehicle,” adding that helicopters “opened fire toward the gunmen in order to assist in extraction of the forces.”

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said that hours after the initial firefight, the army had flooded the area with troops in order to extract personnel pinned down in five disabled vehicles at the scene, describing it as an “evacuation” operation.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified those killed as Khaled Asasa, Qassam Abu Sariya, Qais Jabarin, and teenagers Ahmed Daraghmeh and Ahmed Saqr.

They said at least five others remained in serious condition after being wounded in the shootout.

Hussein al-Shekh, a senior Palestinian official, accused Israel of waging “a fierce and open war” against the Palestinian people and said President Mahmoud Abbas would make “unprecedented decisions” in an emergency meeting.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it called Israel’s “continued escalation against the Palestinians,” saying it only further inflamed the situation and undermined efforts to reduce regional tensions.

Some 124 Palestinians have already been killed this year. 

This comes after Israel’s government on Sunday granted ultra-right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich authority over planning in the occupied West Bank and lifted red tape on the settlement housing approval process.

Mr Smotrich had made the appointment a condition for him to join the most right-wing government in Israel’s history last December.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli government’s decision and called upon the international community to pressure Israel “to take the necessary practical steps to force the Israeli government to stop its illegal unilateral measures.”

A senior Israeli government official said final decisions remained “subject to the prime minister’s authorisation.” 

Israel’s Peace Now anti-settlement watchdog group criticised the decision for “disregarding security and political considerations and perpetuating de facto annexation in the West Bank.”