TULKAREM: Families kissed the faces of the dead and neighbours cried in the streets after one of the worst Israeli raids anyone in the Nur Shams refugee camp can remember.
A funeral procession for 13 Palestinians killed in the army's West Bank operation passed through roads piled with rubble from Israeli bulldozers and rocket fire.
Israeli forces carry out regular raids on towns and cities in the occupied West Bank, and violence has soared since the war in Gaza broke out last year.
The Israeli army said it had killed ten Palestinians in a three-day raid on Nur Shams. Residents in the camp gave a different account.
Niaz Zandeq, 40, said his son Jehad was shot dead by an Israeli soldier on his 15th birthday.
Neighbours said troops told Jehad to leave his uncle's house then shot him as he stepped out of the front door with his hands up.
They displayed images of his body in the street with a bullet wound to the forehead.
Jehad was not the only young person among the dead. The Palestinian health ministry said 16-year-old Qais Fathi Nasrallah was killed by Israeli troops in the nearby Tulkarem refugee camp.
His father, a paramedic, was on shift at the hospital when staff brought his son's body in, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Including Nasrallah, the organisation said the total number of dead in Tulkarem and Nur Shams stood at 14.
The Israeli army said it had made eight arrests and seized weapons around Nur Shams, and that eight soldiers and a police officer were wounded.
As some residents began clearing debris and repairing their smashed homes, others remained in shock.
Hamdia Abdallah Sarhan, 85, said she was still shaken after soldiers broke into her home and shot at the wall, trying to open up a firing position while she lay terrified on the ground.
Sarhan suffers from a lung condition and uses a machine to help her breathe. She said the soldiers broke the machine when they burst in and she struggled for air until relatives found an emergency oxygen tank.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and over 480 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers there since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, according to Palestinian officials. — AFP
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