Israeli forces raided Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday in an operation that the Palestinian health ministry said killed seven Palestinians, including a doctor, and left nine others wounded.

The army claimed it was an operation against militants and that several Palestinian gunmen were shot. There was no immediate word of any Israeli casualties.

The health ministry account of the casualties was quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Among the Palestinians killed was a surgical doctor, the head of the Jenin Governmental Hospital said. He was killed in the vicinity of the hospital, the director said.

The West Bank is among the territories Israel seized in a 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians want it to be the core of an independent Palestinian state.

US-sponsored talks on a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict broke down in 2014.