Israeli security forces backed by helicopters raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least nine Palestinians in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “large-scale and significant military operation”.

“We are acting systematically and resolutely against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its arms – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said. Judea and Samaria are terms Israel uses for the occupied West Bank.

The move into Jenin, where the Israeli army has carried out multiple raids and large-scale incursions over recent years, comes only two days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli NGO B’Tselem accused the Israeli government of using the Gaza ceasefire as “an excuse and opportunity to ratchet up the oppression of West Bank Palestinians”.

“This is not what a ceasefire looks like,” it said.

In the days leading up to the Israeli military operation in Jenin, Palestinians in the West Bank said multiple roadblocks had been set up throughout the territory, where violence has resurged since the start of the war in Gaza.

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