Israel has destroyed multiple buildings in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp, hours after its forces killed a 73-year-old man, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

At least 20 homes were destroyed in the attack on Sunday, in blasts so powerful they were heard across Jenin and in surrounding towns, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondents added that the explosions blew up a residential block in the camp’s ad-Damj neighbourhood.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack, saying it had destroyed “several buildings” in Jenin that “were used as terrorist infrastructure”, without providing evidence. It added that it had killed 50 Palestinian fighters in the West Bank since mid-January.

In a separate incident in Arroub, in the southern West Bank, the Israeli army killed a 27-year-old man, named as Mohammed Amjad Hadoush, the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

The Israeli military launched a major offensive in the occupied West Bank last month, dubbed “Iron Wall”, focused primarily on attacking Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, just after it began a ceasefire with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza on January 19.

Sunday’s explosions mark an escalation as Israel increasingly commits unrestrained attacks on Palestinian infrastructure.

“The sounds are horrific,” Jenin resident Henna al-Haj Hassan told Al Jazeera via phone about the explosions.

Hassan said she and other Jenin residents have faced ongoing attacks for two weeks. She added that a curfew was in place, with shops and other businesses closed.

The director of Jenin Government Hospital, Wisam Baker, told Wafa some sections of the hospital were damaged due to the explosions, but no casualties were reported.

Many families are now displaced due to the demolitions, the news agency said.

Ahmed Tobasi, another Jenin resident, said the houses in the Jenin camp “are not really livable any more” due to Israel destroying infrastructure.

“The Israeli army does not need any excuse to destroy our houses and displace us,” the lifelong Jenin resident told Al Jazeera.

“This is a very long, old plan by the Israeli army, especially for the [refugee] camps, because they want to kill and make the Palestinian case die.”

He added: “So it’s not about terrorism; this is normal residences, people who live – and when you talk about one house, it’s not really one family living there. In Jenin camp, you find one house with three to four families.”

Elderly man killed

The explosions occurred shortly after a 73-year-old man was killed by Israeli gunfire in Jenin’s refugee camp, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Sunday, the latest casualty of Israel’s swooping raids.

“The Israeli army has set up multiple roadblocks and other checkpoints across the occupied West Bank and there have been at least 27 Palestinians who’ve been killed,” Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said.

“Many of them are civilians, including a two-year-old girl who was shot in the head while eating dinner at home with her family, and a 73-year-old elderly man shot by Israeli forces this morning.”

Witnesses reported a large deployment of Israeli forces on Sunday morning around the towns of Tubas and Tammun, southeast of Jenin.

The army said early on Sunday that a “tactical group” had begun operations around Tammun and had uncovered weapons.

It added it was extending the “counterterrorism” operation to five villages.

It also distributed leaflets in Arabic saying the operation was meant to “eradicate armed criminals, the lackeys of Iran”.

The Israeli government accuses Iran, which backs armed groups across the Middle East including Hamas in Gaza, of attempting to send weapons and money to armed Palestinian groups in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s Jenin operation has also forcibly displaced some 15,000 Palestinians.

Settlers storm cemetery, mosque

Also on Sunday, Israeli settlers stormed a cemetery in Silwan town, south of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem, under the protection of the Israeli army, according to Wafa.

Local sources quoted by the Palestinian news agency said the settlers cut the fence that the townspeople had placed around the cemetery and took control of it.

Meanwhile, Palestinian outlets reported that overnight, a mosque in the Bedouin village of Arab al-Mleihat, northwest of Jericho, was set on fire by Israeli settlers.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attacks.

Violence by Israeli settlers and soldiers against Palestinians has surged across the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war broke out in 2023.

Soldiers or settlers have killed at least 882 Palestinians since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The settlements are illegal under international law but continue to expand across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem with the full support of the Israeli government.