Hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones fitted with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the West Bank city.

"On the directive of the Security Cabinet, the IDF, the ISA, and the Israel Police have today begun a...military operation to defeat terrorism in Jenin," Netanyahu said.

The West Bank city of Jenin was the target of an ongoing Israeli "anti-terror" operation that claimed the lives of at least 10 Palestinians and injured as many as 40 others.

The military attack on Jenin began on Tuesday. At least 12 Palestinians have been killed across the governorate.

Israeli forces raided a terror cell in the West Bank while diplomats began pushing back on its cease-fire deal with Hezbollah to the north – two shows of force after the cease-fire in Gaza halted the fight against Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the assault on Jenin would be “extensive and significant,” as the military erected new checkpoints across the West Bank.

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At least 10 people have been killed in the raids, and more than 40 wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Dozens have been arrested, Palestinian officials told the Wafa news agency.

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At least seven Palestinians were killed and 35 others injured in a massive raid by the Israeli army into Jenin, expected to last a few days.

Israel's Operation Iron Wall targets Jenin resistance fighters, with direct coordination and complicity from the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli military killed two Palestinian fighters in the West Bank that it said had been involved in a deadly shooting of Israeli civilians as a major" anti-terror" operation in Jenin entered a third day.