Israeli troops leave West Bank's Jenin with Gaza talks deadlocked

Israeli forces appeared to be winding down a deadly 10-day raid in a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank on Friday, as key ally Germany warned against treating the territory like Gaza.

There was no official confirmation from the Israeli military that it had withdrawn from Jenin, a bastion of Palestinian armed groups, but AFP journalists reported residents returning to the city following the fighting.

The reported pull-out came with Israel at loggerheads with its main ally the United States over talks aimed at forging a truce in the Gaza war, now nearly in its 12th month.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged both Israel and Hamas to finalise a truce deal, saying: "I think based on what I've seen, 90 per cent is agreed."

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied this in an interview with Fox News, saying: "It's not close."

Washington, along with fellow mediators in the talks Qatar and Egypt, has been pushing a proposal to bridge gaps between both sides which trade blame for the failure to reach a deal.

Netanyahu insists on an Israeli military presence on the border between Gaza and Egypt along the so-called Philadelphi Corridor.

Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal, saying it agreed months ago to a truce agreement outlined by US President Joe Biden.

Roads churned up

The military launched coordinated raids across the northern West Bank on August 28 with soldiers supported by armoured vehicles and bulldozers.

There was no immediate confirmation from the military of the end of what it said on Friday was "counterterrorism activity in the area of Jenin".

Palestinian health ministry figures put the death toll for the Israeli incursion at 36.

Many homes in Jenin camp were damaged or destroyed by Israeli bulldozers which also churned up road surfaces.

On Friday, after the pull-out, Jenin residents used bulldozers of their own to begin clearing the rubble.

One resident told AFP he returned to his family home of 20 years to find it had been raided by soldiers.

"Thank God (the children) left the day before. They went to stay with our neighbours here," said Aziz Taleb, a 48-year-old father of seven.

"If they had stayed, they would have been killed without warning or anything."

During the Jenin operation, Israeli forces killed 14 militants, arrested 30 suspects, dismantled "approximately 30 explosives planted under roads" and conducted four aerial strikes, the Israeli military statement said.

One soldier was killed in Jenin, where most of the Palestinian fatalities occurred.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have said at least 14 of the dead were militants.