Jenin, West Bank - Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers in Jenin on Thursday in the deadliest army raid the occupied West Bank has seen since 2005, in an escalation of the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.

The Palestinian city, a militant stronghold and the site of frequent army raids, was reportedly rocked by dozens of explosions as Israeli armored vehicles tore through the streets, fighting running battles with Palestinian gunmen using assault rifles and pipe bombs.

AFP reporters saw one masked militant lying bloody on the pavement, as another took his rifle to fire towards Israeli positions. Another three were seen to be wounded, while AFP counted five bodies in a nearby hospital morgue, where weeping relatives kept vigil over the deceased.

The Palestinian health ministry said 14 were killed in the raid, with the violence continuing until Thursday evening, making it the deadliest single incursion in the West Bank since 2005, according to United Nations records.

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Four more were killed elsewhere in the West Bank on Thursday, the health ministry said, putting the toll of Palestinians killed in the West Bank by Israeli fire since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7 at more than 150 people, according to reports. Three Israelis were killed in violence in the West Bank over that period, according to officials.

"It all started in the early hours of this morning with a raid on the camp. Nothing unusual about that – raids are a fact of life in the occupied West Bank, particularly here in Jenin," Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported from the ground.

"But we’re told the military came in and left behind special forces who were looking for Palestinian fighters. Once they were spotted, the special forces called for backup, and this major gun battle has been going on since then."

The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel on October 7 in an unprecedented attack that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and has retaliated with an aerial bombing and ground offensive that the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says has killed more than 10,800 people, mostly civilians.

The West Bank – a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war – has also been roiled by violence amid increasing raids targeting militants.

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The Israeli military said 20 people were detained in Thursday's Jenin raid, including two members of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

A local told AFP leaflets were airdropped in the morning over Jenin refugee camp – home to some 23,000 people, according to the United Nations – warning them to avoid militant factions.

In the afternoon, more pamphlets were scattered from above, as locals said fighting had left children trapped in their schools.

Meanwhile, a drone on Thursday hit a school in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat and Israeli air defenses later intercepted a missile over the Red Sea, the military said.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they had launched "a barrage of ballistic missiles" at southern Israel, but did not mention drones in their statement.

No one was physically hurt in the explosion at the Eilat elementary school caused by the unidentified drone, but paramedics were treating seven people for shock, said an army spokesperson at the scene, details that were separately confirmed by emergency services.

Later, the Israeli army said it intercepted a missile over the Red Sea without confirming its origin.

The Huthis have claimed repeated missile and drone attacks at Israel as they step up a campaign of disruptive strikes also targeting US forces in the region since October 7.

In a separate incident linked to the Israel-Hamas war, the Huthis said Wednesday that they shot down an American drone.

"Our air defenses were able to down an American MQ-9 while it was carrying out hostile surveillance and espionage activities in Yemeni territorial waters as part of American military support" for Israel, the rebels said in a statement.