Overnight, Israeli armored personnel carriers were seen leaving the Jenin refugee camp from a checkpoint set up on one of the main roads, and an Associated Press reporter inside the camp saw no evidence of any remaining troops inside as dawn broke early Friday morning.

During the operation, Israeli military officials claimed they were targeting militants in Jenin, Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camps in an attempt to curb recent attacks against Israeli civilians they say have become more sophisticated and deadly.

Troops were pulled out of the Tulkarem camp by Friday morning and had left Al-Faraa earlier, but in a statement the Israeli military suggested the operation was not yet over.

“Israeli security forces are continuing to act in order to achieve the objectives of the counterterrorism operation,” the military said in a statement.

Hundreds of Israeli troops have been involved for more than a week in what has been their deadliest operation in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began, employing what the United Nations called “lethal war-like tactics.”

Offensive in Jenin accounts for 21 of 39 Palestinians who local health officials say have been killed during the Israeli push in the West Bank.

The fighting has had a devastating effect on Palestinian civilians living in Jenin.

Water and electric services have been cut, families have been confined to their homes and ambulances evacuating the wounded have been slowed on their way to nearby hospitals, as Israeli soldiers search for militants.

During the operation, Israeli forces sent military bulldozers into the camp, ripping up roads in search of buried explosives.

In the quiet morning Friday, Jenin residents took advantage of the lull to rummage through the rubble of destroyed buildings and take stock of the damage.

Twisted rebar protruded from the concrete of collapsed buildings, and walls still standing were pockmarked by bullets and shrapnel.

In the Tulkarem camp, resident Ziad Abu Tahoun looked with dismay at the torn up streets and crumbled buildings all around him.

“Look at the condition of the camp, the camp is in a deplorable state,” he said. “They've set us back 60 years.”

In southern Gaza, health workers resumed vaccinating children against polio, continuing the second phase of a large-scale immunization campaign.

Children lined up early in the morning outside a United Nations health center in Khan Younis to receive the vaccine, which was being administered by local health care crews in coordination with UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

The first phase started Sunday in hospitals and medical locations in the central Gaza Strip. The final phase was to focus on the north, finishing Sept. 9.

The operation was undertaken as an urgent measure to prevent a large-scale polio outbreak after health officials confirmed the first reported polio case in 25 years, in a 10-month-old boy who is now paralyzed in the leg.

The WHO reached an agreement with Israel for limited pauses in the fighting to allow for the vaccination campaign to take place. In all, the WHO hopes to be able to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children in Gaza against polio.