Hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones fitted with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the West Bank city.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the assault on Jenin would be “extensive and significant,” as the military erected new checkpoints across the West Bank.

The announcement came shortly after President Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers and Jewish extremists raided Palestinian villages in protest against the cease-fire in Gaza.

The Israeli military on Tuesday launched a deadly assault on Jenin in the illegally occupied West Bank, just days after a fragile ceasefire took hold in Gaza.

Marco Rubio spoke to Netanyahu from Washington on Wednesday night to "underscore that maintaining the United States' steadfast support for Israel is a top priority for President Trump," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.

Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday designated Yemen's Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a "foreign terrorist organization", the White House said in a statement.

Israeli security forces backed by helicopters raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least eight Palestinians in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "large-scale and significant military operation".

The men were affiliated with a militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which carried out an attack earlier this month, the military said.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud will visit Damascus on Friday and meet with top officials in the new Syrian administration, a Syrian official said on Thursday.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs, Ayman Safadi, joined the foreign ministers of France, Palestine, Syria, and Iraq in a dialogue session with CNN's editor-in-chief,