Israel signals Jenin raid close to completion

Israel is close to completing its Jenin operation, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday after the fiercest fighting in the flashpoint West Bank town in more than two decades killed 10 and forced thousands to flee.

Launched early on Monday, the raid involving hundreds of commandos and air strikes prompted the Palestinian administration to say it was suspending contacts with Israel and stirred US and UN humanitarian concerns.

Aid groups called on Israel to guarantee humanitarian access. The US said on Monday it respected Israel's right to defend itself but said civilian casualties should be avoided. The United Nations said all military operations should respect international law.

Codenaming the operation in Jenin's tenement-like refugee camp "Home and Garden", Israel says the objective is to uproot factions behind a surge in gun and bomb attacks as well as preliminary efforts to make rockets.

Around 100 have been wounded, 20 of them critically, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The operation "is close to completing the achievement of the goals set," Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanebi told Kan radio after a relative lull in the clashes overnight.

Troops would be deployed to specific target areas in the camp to conduct further searches on Tuesday, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. "If there's friction with terrorists - we'll fight them too," he tweeted.

Offices and businesses across the occupied West Bank were expected to close on Tuesday in response to calls for a general strike to protest the operation, which the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas has described as a "war crime".

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had evacuated 500 families from the camp, where some 14,000 people live in less than half a square kilometre and which has been one of the focal points of a wave of violence that has swept the West Bank for more than a year.