Death toll in West Bank surges as Israel pursues militants

People march towards the US Capitol in Washington during a pro-Palestinian march

Deadly violence has been surging in the West Bank as the Israeli military pursues Palestinian militants in the aftermath of the Hamas attack from Gaza, with at least 90 Palestinians killed in the Israeli-occupied territory in the past two weeks, mainly in clashes with Israeli troops.

The violence threatens to open another front in the 2-week-old war, and puts pressure on the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank and is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, in large part because it cooperates with Israel on security matters.

People queue in front of a bakery in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Pics/AP

The tally includes five Palestinians killed in separate incidents on Sunday, including two who died in an airstrike on a mosque in Jenin refugee camp that Israel said was being used by militants. Israel carried out an airstrike in another West Bank refugee camp last week, in which 13 Palestinians, including five minors, and a member of Israel's paramilitary Border Police were killed.

Gaza, Syria, West Bank struck

Israeli warplanes struck targets across Gaza overnight and into Sunday, as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants, as the two-week-old war with Hamas threatened to spiral into a broader conflict.

Damage after overnight Israeli strikes on Rafah in the Gaza Strip

Israel has traded fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group on a near-daily basis since the war began, and tensions are soaring in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have battled militants in refugee camps and carried out two airstrikes in recent days.

Palestine rocket used in hospital blast: France

An assessment by French military intelligence indicates the most likely cause of the deadly explosion at Gaza City's al-Ahli hospital was a Palestinian rocket that carried an explosive charge of about 5 kilograms (11 pounds) and possibly misfired, a senior French military official said Friday.

Several rockets in the arsenal of the Palestinian militant group Hamas carry explosive charges of about that weight, including an Iranian-made rocket and another that is Palestinian-made, the intelligence official said. None of their intelligence pointed to an Israeli strike, the official said.

US orders more defence systems in Middle East

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced late Saturday he was sending additional air defense systems to the Middle East as well as putting more troops on prepare-to-deploy orders. Austin said the U.S. would be delivering a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery along with additional Patriot missile defense system batteries "to locations throughout the region to increase force protection for U.S. troops." Bases in Iraq and Syria have been repeatedly targetted by drones in the days since hundreds were killed in a hospital blast in Gaza.

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