Israel ends large-scale West Bank raid that left 13 dead

Israel's army Wednesday declared the end of a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank that killed 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier over the previous two days.

The raid, involving hundreds of forces, drone strikes and armoured bulldozers, targeted the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a centre for multiple armed Palestinian groups.

Amid the days of violence there, a Palestinian attacker in Tel Aviv on Tuesday wounded seven Israelis, two seriously, in a car ramming and stabbing attack before he was shot dead by an armed civilian.

And overnight, Israel carried out air strikes on targets inside the blockaded Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian coastal enclave, with no deaths reported.

As the army pulled out of Jenin from late Tuesday, much of the crowded city was left charred and in rubble from the fighting which displaced at least 3,000 residents.

Its adjacent refugee camp, a tiny and crowded urban area home to 18,000 people, has long been a stronghold of militant groups including Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

"The operation is officially over and the soldiers have left the Jenin area," said an army spokesman Wednesday after columns of armoured vehicles were seen pulling out.

Jenin residents inspected the widespread destruction in the camp, where gaping holes were torn into buildings, cars were crushed and the ground was littered with bullet casings and broken glass.

Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled Jenin and its refugee camp a "terrorist nest", and the army said it had seized arms and explosives depots and militant logistic sites.

The Palestinians labelled the escalation there an act of "open war against the people of Jenin".

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967 and built many settlements, considered illegal under international law, in the area that Palestinians regard as the core on the independent state they are seeking.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to around 490,000 Israelis living in settlements -- a number that hard-right nationalist groups within Netanyahu's coalition government are working to increase.

The Palestinians want Israel to withdraw from all land seized in 1967 and to dismantle all Jewish settlements. Netanyahu, however, has pledged to "strengthen settlements" and expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, which have been moribund since 2014.

The Israeli army, after a number of deadly attacks early last year inside Israel, started to launch almost daily raids into the West Bank.

The violence has further escalated since Netanyahu's government took over late last year, with clashes concentrated in the northern West Bank area, long a hotbed of militancy.

During the latest raid on the Jenin camp, the army said it had uncovered militant hideouts, arms depots and explosives manufacturing facilities.