'They shot to kill': Israeli troops kill 11 Palestinians in Nablus raid

Israeli forces have killed 11 Palestinians and wounded scores during a military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to Palestine's Health Ministry and medics.

Wednesday's incursion also left 102 Palestinians wounded, including six in critical condition, the ministry said in a statement.

Among those killed were two Palestinian men, aged 72 and 61, and a 16-year-old boy, according to health officials.

The ministry said a resident, Anan Shawkat Annab, 66, suffered from tear gas inhalation and died in a hospital.

In one emotional scene, an overwhelmed medic pronounced a man dead, only to notice the lifeless patient was his father. Elsewhere, an amateur video showed two men, apparently unarmed, being shot as they ran in the street.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its medics treated some 250 people affected by tear gas fired by Israeli forces. 

There were no Israeli casualties.

Israeli Makor Rishon newspaper reported that Israeli forces killed two members of the Lions' Den armed group. 

'They shot to kill'

The influx of wounded overwhelmed the city’s Najah Hospital, said Ahmad Aswad, the head nurse of the cardiology department.

The 36-year-old medic told The Associated Press that he saw many patients shot in the chest, head and thighs. "They shot to kill," he said.

In a moment he said will haunt him, he and a colleague carefully extracted a bullet from a 61-year-old man’s heart. After the chaos subsided and they pronounced their patient dead, they looked at the man’s face. It was his colleague’s father, 61-year-old Abdelaziz Ashqar.

His colleague, Elias Ashqar, was overcome and went silent. "It didn't feel like we were in reality," Aswad said.

READ MORE: Palestinian teen killed in Israeli military raid in occupied West Bank

Thousands protest against Israel 

Israeli forces have repeatedly carried out raids in Nablus in search of members of the Lions' Den group, which emerged in the occupied West Bank last year.

In the Old City of Nablus, people stared at the rubble that had been a large home in the centuries-old marketplace. From one end to the other, shops were riddled with bullets. Parked cars were crushed. Blood stained the cement ruins. Furniture from the destroyed home was scattered among mounds of debris.

Time-stamped security footage widely shared online appeared to show two young men running down a street. Gunshots are heard, and both fall to the ground, with one's hat flying off his head.

The two men did not appear to be armed.

As the bodies were paraded through the crowd on stretchers, thousands of people packed the streets, chanting in support of the Palestinian fighters. Masked men fired into the air.

In Washington, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US recognises Israel's "very real" security concerns, but was also "deeply concerned" about the deaths and injuries from the raid.

Palestine's ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, urged the international community "to put an end to these massacres against our people."

Türkiye said it "strongly condemns" the Israeli attack that killed Palestinians, asking Israeli authorities to quickly stop attacks and provocations.

"We express our condolences to Palestinian people," Türkiye's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Nearly 60 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank and Israel-annexed East Jerusalem this year, according to an AP tally.

READ MORE: Israeli settlement expansion threatens peace, UNSC warns