Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a shooting attack in the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday as Israel pressed ahead with a military operation that has forced many people to flee their homes and caused widespread destruction.
The attack came two days after Israel announced an eastward expansion in its campaign, which it has said is targeting militants, and which Palestinians have said is one of the most severe in the West Bank in years.
Eight other soldiers were injured in the attack on Tuesday, including two who were in serious condition, the military said in a statement. The assailant, the military added, was later killed in an exchange of fire.
It was unclear whether the assailant was a member of a militant group or had acted alone. But Islamic Jihad and Hamas, two groups that have grown in power in the northern West Bank, called the attack “heroic.”
On Sunday, Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli military, posted a video of a controlled demolition in the Jenin camp, a marginalized neighborhood where militants had grown in numbers and sophistication in recent years. Mr. Adraee said 23 buildings used by militants were targeted, among the largest-scale controlled demolitions Israel has carried out in the West Bank in recent years.
Israel launched its operation on Jan. 21, two days after a cease-fire came into effect in the Gaza Strip. The beginning of the operation focused on the Jenin camp and it has expanded to the towns of Tulkarm in the west and Tamun in the east.
It came after the Western-backed Palestinian Authority spent more than a month carrying out its own operation against militants in the Jenin area.
The clashes between the Palestinian Authority and the militants were destructive, leaving multiple dead, including six security officers, a journalist and a middle-aged woman. They also led to the displacement of thousands and widespread losses of water and power.
But Israel’s operation — one of dozens in recent years — has been more damaging.
In addition to the housing demolitions, the Israeli military has ripped up roads in what it has said was a tactic to uncover improvised explosive devices. The operation has killed 25 people in the broader Jenin area and wounded about 65 others, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had killed 35 militants across several cities in the northern West Bank and arrested 100 wanted people.
