Josep Borrell during a special meeting at Al Jazeera Studio (Al Jazeera)

Senior US and European diplomats on Sunday discussed ways to prevent the spread of the Gaza war in the Middle East, but the ongoing bloodshed shows the difficulties facing these efforts three months after the conflict began.

The Israeli military said an Israeli plane fired on Palestinian militants who attacked soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, and Palestinian health officials said three Palestinians were killed in the air strike.

According to the army and police, an Israeli border police officer was killed and others injured when their car was hit by an improvised explosive device during operations in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The West Bank has already seen its highest levels of tension in decades in the 18 months leading up to the October <> offensive by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, but confrontations have escalated sharply since Israel launched its retaliatory offensive that devastated the Gaza Strip, saying it aimed to eliminate Hamas.

Hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers in recent weeks and security forces have arrested thousands.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell traveled to the region for separate visits to try to stop the spillover of the war into Lebanon, the West Bank and Red Sea shipping lanes.

Blinken visited Jordan on Sunday after stops in Turkey and Greece, while Borrell visited Lebanon. Both said the priority was to prevent the expansion of the Gaza war.

Blinken, who will also travel to Israel, the West Bank, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt during his fourth tour of the region, said: "We are focusing intensively on preventing the expansion of this conflict."

In a report on the Israeli attack on Saturday, Israeli military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had completed the dismantling of Hamas's "military framework" in northern Gaza, adding: "We are now focused on dismantling Hamas in the central and southern Strip."

"The fighting will continue in 2024," he said, adding, "We are working according to a plan to achieve the goals of the war, which is to dismantle Hamas in the north and south."

Source : Al Jazeera + Agencies