Israeli forces arrested 24 Palestinians during its raids in the West Bank early Thursday, Palestinian security sources said.

The arrests took place during the Israeli incursion into the cities of Jenin, Qalqilya, Bethlehem and surrounding villages, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, an Israeli army force also operated in an area east of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip, and Israeli bulldozers backed by tanks leveled some groves, according to local residents.

Israel has been storming the West Bank since 2000, aiming at what it called wanted activists. Palestinians fear that these campaigns would become even more intense after an Israeli order allowing the army to expel West Bank residents came into force on April 13.

On Wednesday, Israel deported a Palestinian prisoner to the Gaza Strip after he finished his sentence. Before his arrest, Ahmed Sabbah had been living in the West Bank since the creation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1994. He was deported on the ground that he was born in Gaza.

The Israeli military rule would lead to expulsion of thousands of Gazans who have moved to the West Bank, foreign-born Palestinians married to West Bankers and foreigners who are in the West Bank on expired tourist visas.