Deadly West Bank raid

Israel launched air strikes on Gaza in response to militant rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, as tensions rose following the deadliest army raid on the occupied West Bank in years.

Israel said it had carried out at least two rounds of strikes targeting Hamas Islamists, following waves of rocket launches towards southern Israel.

There were no reported injuries on either side and most of the Gaza rockets were intercepted by Israel's air defence system.

No Palestinian group in Gaza has claimed responsibility for the rockets, but both Hamas and Islamic Jihad had vowed to respond to Israeli raids in the West Bank, which killed nine people.

Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in separate West Bank unrest near Ramallah.

The bloodiest day in the West Bank in years erupted during a raid on the crowded refugee camp in the northern city of Jenin, where gunshots rang through the streets and smoke billowed from burning barricades.

The military said Israeli forces came under fire during a "counterterrorism operation to apprehend an Islamic Jihad terror squad" and shot several enemy combatants.

Since its records began in 2005, the United Nations has never logged such a high death toll in a single operation in the West Bank.

The violence prompted the Palestinian Authority to announce it was cutting security coordination with Israel, a move criticised by the United States.