Israel pounds Gaza with air strikes amid pullout of troops from Jenin

• Death toll in latest operation by Tel Aviv rises to 12. 
• Gaza fires five rockets amid pullout of Israeli forces. 
• Jenin sees limited access to water, power, medical facilities.

Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip, responding to the rockets fired from the coastal enclave in Palestine, while the army pulled out of Jenin city in the occupied West Bank after one of the biggest military operations.

The invading Israeli forces started withdrawing from the Jenin refugee camp following the United Nations rights chief's call for an end to violence by Tel Aviv that continued for two days.

The residents were seen returning and assessing damage in the Jenin refugee after the pullout of forces.

At least 12 Palestinians were martyred, one Israeli soldier killed, and approximately 100 others injured in the raid, which began early Monday with a drone strike and caused widespread destruction to Jenin’s refugee camp.

Over 1,000 troops had been deployed in Jenin under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government.

A few hours after the forces began withdrawing, five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, the military said. The rockets were intercepted, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israeli jets hit an underground weapons manufacturing facility in response, the military said, but it was not immediately clear whether there would be any further escalation.

On Tuesday, the situation aggravated with a car-ramming and stabbing attack claimed by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israel's business hub Tel Aviv, in which eight people were hurt.

Doctors Without Borders said Israeli forces had fired tear gas at a hospital where its teams were working.

However, the Israeli military said it had no knowledge of its forces firing in the vicinity of a hospital but that it did carry out an air-strike at gunmen that had taken up positions in a cemetery and posed a threat to the withdrawing troops.

"At this moment we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive activity in Jenin is not a one-time operation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a checkpoint near the city.

Limited medical access

The Palestinian foreign ministry labelled the escalation "open war against the people of Jenin".

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders also condemned Israeli forces for firing tear gas inside Khalil Suleiman hospital in Jenin, calling it "unacceptable".

Palestinian health minister Mai al-Kaila even accused the army of shooting at Palestinians in a courtyard of the Jenin public hospital.

"Israel's aggression reached its climax this afternoon when citizens were shot at directly in the courtyard of Jenin hospital wounding three, two of them seriously," the minister told reporters, adding that forces had also stormed the Ibn Sina hospital.

The Israeli army said there were reports on social media regarding fire by soldiers towards a hospital.

"The reports are not currently known to security forces," it said, adding that "terrorist organisations have exploited civilian areas as a hideout".

Shops in Jenin were shuttered amid a general strike and the near-empty streets littered with debris and burned roadblocks.

"The most dangerous is what happened inside the camp, where there is no electricity, no water, and no roads for those who need to go to hospital," Jenin mayor Nidal Abu Saleh told AFP.

No power, water, or supplies

Palestinian fighters from groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah had fortified the camp with obstacles and watching posts to counter regular army raids.

Power and water supplies remained cut off in the camp and in some areas of the city after bulldozers that ploughed up roads looking for improvised bombs cut cables and a main water pipe.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from the Jenin refugee camp.

The Islamic Jihad claimed four of the 12 fatalities as its fighters. Hamas claimed a fifth.

Israeli officials said as far as they were aware, no civilians had been killed.

The United States said it respected Israel's right to defend itself but said it was imperative to avoid civilian casualties, which Tel Aviv claimed were zero.

The EU said it was gravely concerned by the escalation and UN bodies voiced alarm at the scale of the military action.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council said it will meet behind closed doors as requested by the United Arab Emirates.

'Violence must stop'

The United Nations decried the violence in Tel Aviv and Jenin.

The recent operation in the occupied West Bank and car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv worryingly underscore an all too familiar pattern of events: That violence only begets more violence," Daily Sabah quoted UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk as saying.

"The killing, maiming and the destruction of property must stop," Turk said.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967. The conflict has worsened since early last year, and escalated further under the Netanyahu government that includes extreme-right allies.

The Palestinians, who seek their own independent state, want Israel to withdraw from all land it seized in 1967 and to dismantle all Jewish settlements.

Netanyahu, however, has pledged to "strengthen settlements" and expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, which have been moribund since 2014.

At least 190 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian have been killed this year, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources from both sides.

They include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians and three members of the Arab minority.

Additional input from agencies.