An Israeli fighter jet carried out a rare attack in Tulkarem late Thursday, with the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry reporting at least 18 fatalities in one of the deadliest airstrikes in the West Bank in recent memory.

A joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet said the strike targeted Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, a top Hamas commander in Tulkarem, along with several other operatives. According to the military, Oufi was planning a terror attack “in the immediate time frame.”

The statement said Oufi planned and led an attempted car bombing attack near the settlement of Ateret last month.

He was also involved in providing weapons to other terror operatives who carried out numerous attacks in the West Bank and in Israel recently, including those that led to the injury of Israeli civilians, according to the military.

The IDF and Shin Bet added that he “worked to establish terrorist networks on behalf of Hamas and assisted terror operatives in the area to carry out significant shooting and explosive attacks.”

“[He] intended to carry out an attack in the immediate time frame,” and therefore the strike was carried out, the IDF said.

The IDF has carried out dozens of airstrikes in the West Bank in the past year, but mostly with drones and helicopters, rarely with fighter jets.

In addition to the 18 Palestinians killed, numerous other people were reportedly wounded in Thursday’s strike, which a source within the Palestinian security services told AFP was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2000.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman called for Israel to be held accountable for the “heinous crime,” in a statement that described the attack as a “massacre.”

Hamas condemned Israel over the “cruel attack” and warned it would prove to be a “dangerous escalation.” Other Palestinian factions also denounced Israel, with Abbas’s Fatah movement calling for demonstrations on Friday to honor the “heroic martyrs” of Tulkarem.

Tulkarem has been a focus of recent Israeli counter-terrorism operations in West Bank towns and refugee camps, as part of intensified near-daily military raids aimed at dismantling Palestinian terror groups following Hamas’s October 7 attack from Gaza.

Since October 7, troops have arrested some 5,250 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 716 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 40 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.

Agencies contributed to this report.