RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, Oct 4, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - At least 18 people were killed in the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said late Thursday, following an air strike that the Israeli military claimed killed a local Hamas leader.

A source within the Palestinian security services told AFP that the air raid was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2000.

"Eighteen martyrs following the bombing of the Tulkarm camp by the occupation," the Palestinian health ministry said on its Telegram account.

The Israeli army confirmed the strike on the town in the northern West Bank, describing it as a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security service and the air force, according to a brief statement by the military.

The Israeli military later said the strike had killed a Hamas leader in Tulkarm -- Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi.

The army accused Oufi participating in numerous attacks in the West Bank and said he was in the process of planning another assault.

"Alongside Oufi, multiple other significant terrorists who were part of the terror network in Tulkarm were eliminated," the statement said.

Hamas condemned the air strike, calling it a "cruel attack" that would prove to be a "dangerous escalation".

Reached by telephone, camp official Faisal Salama told AFP that the attack had been carried out by an F-16 fighter jet.

Alaa Sroji -- a social activist from the area -- said the Israeli plane had "hit a cafeteria in a four-story building."

"There are many victims in the hospital," the resident added, saying the toll would likely rise.

The Palestinian movement Fatah, a Hamas rival based in the occupied West Bank, called for demonstrations on Friday to honour the "heroic martyrs" of Tulkarm.

Tulkarm was one of the towns and Palestinian refugee camps targeted during a large-scale Israeli military operation in late August against militants based in the West Bank.

Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza which began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Since the Hamas assault, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 701 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

At least 24 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian militant attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.

Major Israeli operations in the West Bank are sometimes occurring "at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades," United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said last month.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities, but the current raids as well as comments by Israeli officials mark an escalation, residents say.