JERUSALEM: The Israeli military conducted an airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin amid days of heavy fighting in the Palestinian territory, authorities said Friday.

The Israeli military said in a brief statement that a military aircraft “struck a terrorist cell during an encounter with security forces in a counterterrorism operation in the area of Jenin.” It did not immediately elaborate.

Such airstrikes, while common over the months-long Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, have been rare in the West Bank in the time since.

Israel says the raids across the northern West Bank — which have killed 16 people, nearly all militants, since late Tuesday — are aimed at preventing attacks. The Palestinians see them as a widening of the war in Gaza and an effort to perpetuate Israel’s decades-long military rule over the territory.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.