The Israeli military said its forces killed five Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Thursday in a second day of “counter-terrorism” operations that have killed 14 in total.

“Following exchanges of fire, the forces eliminated five terrorists who had hidden inside a mosque” in Tulkarem on Thursday morning, the military said.

On Wednesday, the military said it killed nine militants in simultaneous raids in the West Bank cities of Tulkarem, Jenin and Tubas.

Violence has surged in the West Bank during the Gaza conflict sparked by the Palestinian group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

Israel has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. It has also caused widespread destruction in the Palestinian territory, displaced nearly all of its 2.4 million people at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis.