Israel is carrying out large-scale military raids in parts of the occupied West Bank, where the decadeslong conflict with the Palestinians had worsened even before the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

Israel says the operation, which appeared to be the largest since the start of the war, is aimed at preventing attacks on its citizens. Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have released footage showing their fighters boarded and placed explosives on a Greek-flagged tanker, setting off blasts that put the Red Sea at risk of a major oil spill. The vessel was abandoned earlier, after the Houthis repeatedly attacked it.

In the video, the Iran-backed Houthis chant their motto as the bombs detonated aboard the oil tanker Sounion: "God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam."

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.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Thursday he will urge the bloc's 27 member states Thursday to back sanctions on Israeli ministers over their remarks about the war in Gaza.

“Some Israeli ministers have been launching hateful messages, unacceptable hateful messages, against the Palestinians and proposing things that go clearly against international law and is an incitation to commit more crimes,” Borrell said.

The U.N. secretary-general is calling for an immediate halt to Israel's large-scale military operation in the West Bank.

Antonio Guterres also called on Israel’s government to comply with its obligations under international law and take measures to protect civilians, according to a written statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric late Thursday.

Ireland’s foreign minister said Thursday that Israel is targeting Palestinian people and not just Hamas with its military campaign in Gaza, and he wants the European Union to review its ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

“This is a war against Palestinians not just against Hamas. The level of civilian casualties and dead is unconscionable,” Micheál Martin said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. “It’s a war on the population. No point in trying to fudge this.”

Germany is planning to deport the leader of an Islamic center it banned in July over alleged links to militant groups, an interior ministry spokeswoman said Thursday.

Investigators swooped on the Hamburg Islamic Center five weeks ago after concluding it was an "Islamist extremist organization" with links to Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said it has killed a "significant" Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in a strike in the Syria-Lebanon border area, while a monitor of Syria's conflict reported four dead in the incident.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said in a statement that three of its fighters "from the Syrian arena" were killed, while Lebanon's Hezbollah issued a statement saying a fighter was killed, without specifying where.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have agreed to allow tugboats and rescue ships to assist a Greek-flagged oil tanker that remains ablaze in the Red Sea "in consideration of humanitarian and environmental concerns," Iran's mission to the United Nations claimed late Wednesday. However, the Houthis did not offer specific details and are believed to have blocked an earlier attempt to salvage the vessel and continue to attack shipping across the Red Sea.

Last week's attack on the Sounion marked the most serious assault in weeks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who continue to target shipping through the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have disrupted the $1 trillion in trade that typically passes through the region, as well as halted some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen.

The Israeli military said it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank early Thursday, including a well-known local commander.

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad confirmed the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad in the Nour Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Tulkarem.