At least 11 Palestinians killed in West Bank as Gaza talks held in Qatar

At least 11 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids and strikes in several towns in the north of the occupied West Bank Wednesday, as talks aiming to secure a Gaza truce and hostage release deal continued in Qatar, a U.S. official said.

Neither Israel nor Hamas has confirmed their participation.

Two Palestinians were killed in the city of Jenin, four others in a nearby village, and four more in a refugee camp near the town of Tubas, said the Red Crescent's Ahmed Jibril.

He added that 15 others had been wounded.

The Israeli army said early Wednesday it was carrying out an "operation to thwart terrorism in Jenin and Tulkarm" in the northern West Bank.

The operation comes two days after Israel said it carried out an air strike on the West Bank that the Palestinian Authority reported killed five people.

Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza, with more than 640 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops and settlers since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.

At least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to Israeli officials.

Violence, meanwhile, raged on in the war that has ravaged the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly all of its 2.4 million people at least once, and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

The civil defense agency in the Hamas-run territory said separate Israeli strikes killed at least 15 people in Gaza City and in two refugee camps in central and southern Gaza.

The Israeli military said a hostage was rescued Tuesday from a Gaza tunnel, more than 10 months after the Israeli Bedouin man was seized during the Hamas attack that triggered a devastating war.

U.S. claims talks...