Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men during a raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The deaths were the latest in a surge of violence in the Palestinian territory that has prompted growing international concern since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the Gaza war.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described the situation in the West Bank as being at boiling point and warned that “we could be on the eve of a greater explosion”.

The Palestinian health ministry said two men, aged 19 and 36, were pronounced dead from gunshot wounds following an army raid in the Tulkarm refugee camp on Sunday local time, in the north of the West Bank, which the UN says houses over 27,000 Palestinian refugees.

At least five other people were wounded in the Israeli military operation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Israeli military said its forces were there to apprehend “a senior wanted suspect” believed to have been involved in attacks on its forces.

The suspect was killed by Israeli troops in an exchange of fire, then “armed terrorists opened fire and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces, who responded with live fire”, the army said in a statement.

“During the exchange of fire, an Israel Border Police officer was severely injured” and hospitalised, it added.

The Israeli military has stepped up its near daily raids across the West Bank, which it says are aimed at dismantling Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas.

At least 398 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli military said that since the start of the Gaza war, its troops had arrested more than 3100 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 1350 Hamas members.

The Palestinians seek the territory as the heartland of a future independent state.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 28,985 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory during the war between militants and Israel.

A total of 127 people died in the last 24 hours, and 68,883 people have been injured since war erupted on October 7, it added in a statement.

WEST BANK AT ‘BOILING’ POINT

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the situation in the Israel-occupied West Bank posed a major obstacle to finding a long-term solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The West Bank is the real obstacle for the two-state solution,” Borrell said at the Munich Security Conference.

“The West Bank is at boiling … we could be on the eve of a greater explosion,” he said.

Around 490,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, in dozens of settlements that are deemed illegal under international law.

The settlers live alongside around three million Palestinians in the territory.

Palestinians view the Israeli settlements as a war crime and a major obstacle to peace, but many national-religious hardliners see living there as fulfilling a divine promise.

Borrell said the EU needed to “support the Arab initiative” to establish a Palestinian state, including both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Borrell’s comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a plan for international recognition of such a state, following reports of such an initiative in The Washington Post.

The US newspaper reported that US President Joe Biden’s administration and a small group of Arab nations were working out a comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

It included a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the report said.

A question mark remained over who would lead a post-war Palestinian state.

The US has pinned its hopes on a reformed Palestinian Authority to be a better partner for Israel.

The Palestinian Authority, which holds limited authority in the West Bank, is led by Mahmud Abbas and his party Fatah.

Gaza has had its own separate administration run by Hamas since 2007 when Abbas loyalists were ousted from the territory.

Speaking at the Munich conference, the Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Palestinian Authority “(does) not have a partner in Israel”.

“We need to move from talking about two states to implementation of two states,” Shtayyeh said.