RAMALLAH -- At least 5,000 Palestinian families have been forcibly displaced from Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps in northern West Bank over the past two weeks, the Palestinian Authority said in a statement on Tuesday after a meeting.

Three U.S. Army soldiers were onboard a BlackHawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank is heading in a "catastrophic direction", the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday, adding that residents had "endured the impossible".

Resistance fighters have engaged in fierce confrontations with the Israeli army forces in Jenin, achieving direct hits.

The sudden expansion of Israeli security operations in the West Bank has killed at least 10 people and follows the start of the delicate ceasefire process in Gaza, by which Israeli hostages are released in stages and will also see the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Thick clouds were seen rising from the Palestinian city where Israeli forces have been conducting a massive operation for nearly two weeks that the Israeli military says is targeted at local militants,

The Israeli military blew up at least 20 buildings in the West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday, staging controlled demolitions that thundered across the region, where troops have been battling local militants in an operation dubbed Iron Wall.