West Bank militants, supporters hold mass funeral

Atop a derelict building in Jenin, children counted the passing bodies of Palestinian fighters being carried to their graves in a mass funeral for militants killed in the deadliest Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank since 2005.

In the city — long-considered a hotbed of militancy — 14 people were killed in the fighting on Thursday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

After a day of running battles between masked gunmen and Israeli forces in armored personnel carriers, the streets were pockmarked with holes and strewn with bullet casings.

From homes and hospital morgues, the bodies of 10 of the victims were carried on stretchers by dozens of masked militants firing guns in the air.

The Israeli army said "during the counterterrorism activity, forces exchanged fire with armed terrorists, over 10 terrorists were killed, and over 20 wanted suspects were apprehended."

Death toll

The 14 dead in Jenin on Thursday is the highest toll from a single raid in the West Bank since 2005, according to United Nations figures.

Tensions in the Palestinian territory have boiled over with a sharp increase in Israeli raids since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from Gaza on 7 October, which killed more than 1,200 people, revised down from 1,400.

14 people were killed in the fighting on Thursday.

Israel's foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat told Agence France-Presse the figure is an updated estimate and not final as bodies are still being identified.

In response to the Hamas attack, Israel has vowed to destroy the terrorists, relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip and sending in ground troops. More than 11,000 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, more than 180 Palestinians have been killed since the war's start, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Three Israelis were slain in the same period, officials say.

Demolition

Israel's embassy to the United States issued a rare public rebuke Friday to a State Department office that deals with Palestinian affairs, after it criticized Israel's demolition of a Palestinian home in Jerusalem.

"The government of Israel has demolished the home of a Palestinian family in response to the actions of their 13-year-old child," the US Office of Palestinian Affairs posted on X.

"An entire family should not lose their home because of the actions of one individual," it added.

The Israeli embassy shot back in response, "Context is helpful: The '13-year-old' is a terrorist who murdered an Israeli citizen by stabbing him to death."

Neither side named the teen, but Israeli media identified him as Muhammad Zalbani, who it said had stabbed to death an Israeli border policeman as he was inspecting a bus in East Jerusalem in February.

WITH AFP