West Bank: Israel army blows up home, kills Palestinian man
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man, wounded more than 300 others, and blew up a home in a large military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus early on Thursday.
The Palestinian health ministry said Khalil Yahya al-Anis, 20, died from gunshot wounds.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said 337 people, including four children, were injured by Israeli bullets and from inhaling tear gas. At least two people were seriously wounded.
Israeli forces also razed the family house of a Palestinian man accused of killing an Israeli soldier in October.
Waleed al-Ahmad who lives next door, told Middle East Eye he was going to bed when he heard military vehicles arriving in the area.
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“My two little girls started crying, I took my family to the room farthest from the street to keep them from any harm, but the sound of bombs and bullets was very loud and I couldn't get my children to stop crying,” al-Ahmad said.
The 33-year-old then learned that his father, mother, his two sisters and their children, who live in the same neighbourhood, suffered shortness of breath caused by incoming tear gas from Israeli troops.
“I felt very afraid and didn’t know what to do. I tried to go down from the house to reach my parents, but the soldiers prevented me," al-Ahmad told MEE.
Israel routinely demolishes the family homes of Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis. This practice is condemned by rights groups as a form of unlawful collective punishment.
Duha Abu Hawash, who lives on the floor directly above the house that was blown up, said dozens of Israeli soldiers came into her home asking her to leave with her two children who were asleep at the time.
“In the morning I went back and I found the soldiers blew up the house's door even though I left it open," Abu Hawash, 28, told MEE.
"The house was filled with water and sewage, the balcony was cracked and I was afraid to use it.”
Protests against raid
During the raid, Nablus residents took to the streets, hurling stones and other projectiles at Israeli soldiers.
In some areas, Palestinian fighters engaged in armed clashes with Israeli troops.
The circumstances of al-Anis's death were not immediately clear.
'The sound of bombs and bullets was very loud and I couldn't get my children to stop crying'
- Waleed al-Ahmad, eyewitness
According to the PRCS, Israeli forces also targeted a Palestinian ambulance with live bullets and a stun grenade, which shattered a vehicle's windshield. No injuries were reported to the paramedics.
Earlier this week on Tuesday, Israeli troops shot and killed 19-year-old Faris Abdel-Menem Hashash in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus
The two incidents come as deadly Israeli operations in the West Bank grow, leading to a record number of Palestinian fatalities.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 156 Palestinians this year, including 25 children.
A total of 122 fatalities have been recorded in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and a further 34 in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians have killed at least 20 Israelis in the same period.
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