Israeli forces killed five Palestinians Sunday across the occupied West Bank, health officials said, raising to more than 110 the death toll in surging violence there since the start of the Gaza war.
The Palestinian health ministry said five people aged 29 to 35 were shot dead by Israeli forces at dawn, two of them in Nablus's Askar refugee camp.
The other incidents took place in Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, Bethlehem's Dheisheh refugee camp and in Tamun north of Nablus.
The Palestinian ministry did not provide further details.
The Israeli military said that during activity to demolish the home of a militant in Askar, "explosive devices were hurled at Israeli security forces and exchanges of fire took place with terrorists".
Israel routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians it accuses of deadly attacks, arguing that such measures act as a deterrent. Campaigners say the policy amounts to collective punishment, as it can render non-combatants homeless.
During arrests of militants in Jenin and nearby, "suspects hurled explosive devices at the forces and exchanges of fire took place with terrorists," the army said.
And, while the army was carrying out "counterterrorism activity in the town of Beit Rima, terrorists hurled Molotov cocktails and explosive devices at the forces, who responded with live fire," according to an army statement.
Israel occupied the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its forces regularly carry out raids on Palestinian militants there.
Since October 7, "over 1,030 wanted suspects have been apprehended" in the West Bank, "700 of whom are affiliated with the Hamas terrorist organisation," the army said, as its forces fight the militant group in the Gaza Strip.
In recent months there has also been a rise in violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
On Saturday, a 40-year-old Palestinian who was harvesting his olives was killed by a settler in the village of Sawiya near Nablus, the health ministry said.
Settlers said he was killed as they acted in self-defence after a clash erupted between Palestinians and inhabitants of an Israeli settlement nearby.
One member of the Israeli security forces was killed on October 19 in unrest in Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
Medics warn Israel is bombing around Gaza hospital
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Sunday the Israeli military was repeatedly bombing around its hospital in central Gaza, causing damage and putting civilians at risk.
"The Israeli army deliberately continues to launch rockets directly near Al-Quds hospital with the aim of forcing medical staff, displaced individuals and patients to evacuate the hospital," the medical organisation said in a statement.
"This has caused significant damage to hospital departments and exposed residents and patients to suffocation," the statement added.
In addition to patients, the Red Crescent said 14,000 people displaced by the war are sheltering at the hospital.
Earlier Sunday, the organisation said it had received phone calls from Israeli forces ordering them to evacuate the hospital ahead of strikes.
A military spokesman told AFP these calls are "part of the military's overall call asking people to head to the south" of the Gaza Strip.
The head of the World Health Organization said reports of threats to evacuate Al-Quds hospital were "deeply concerning".
"We reiterate -- it's impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, when asked about the phone calls received by the hospital, told CBS show "Face the Nation" that he had not heard of these calls.
"What I can tell you is that hospitals are critical civilian infrastructure. Under international humanitarian law hospitals should not be targeted. They are not military targets," Sullivan said.
The militant group Hamas issued an appeal to "the United Nations and the international community to take immediate action to stop the threat by the occupation (Israel) to target Al-Quds hospital".
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza has reported 57 attacks on medical facilities since the war erupted on October 7.
A dozen hospitals in Gaza are no longer functioning and 116 health workers have been killed, the ministry said in a statement.
Fighting in Gaza raged for a 23rd day Sunday after Hamas militants on October 7 launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Since the Hamas attack, the health ministry in Gaza says more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's relentless retaliatory bombardments, half of them children.
Hamas says engaged in 'heavy fighting' with Israeli army in Gaza
Hamas's armed wing said Sunday its fighters were engaged in "heavy fighting" with Israeli forces in Gaza after Israeli military deployed more ground forces across the Palestinian territory.
"Our fighters are currently engaged in heavy fighting with machine-guns and anti-tank weapons with the invading occupation (Israeli) forces in northwest Gaza," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
In an earlier statement the group said two Israeli tanks had caught fire after they were targeted by its fighters, a claim which the army has not confirmed.
Israeli forces continued to pound north Gaza with air and artillery shelling on Sunday evening.
The army said troops had "identified a number of terrorists exiting the shaft of a tunnel" near the Erez border crossing and "confronted the terrorists, killing and injuring them".
Earlier on Sunday the army said it had increased the number of troops fighting inside the Gaza Strip as it stepped up its war on Hamas in the tiny coastal territory.
On Friday evening, Israeli armoured forces and infantry began operating inside Gaza in what Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called "a new phase" of the war on Hamas, triggered by deadly attacks on Israel on October 7.
Israeli forces had made several smaller-scale ground incursions inside Gaza before, but the current one has been their longest presence in the territory since the latest violence erupted.