Palestinians in Jenin bury three fighters killed in Israel raid

Three Palestinian fighters were buried in the occupied West Bank on Friday after mourners marched through streets still smouldering from the aftermath of an Israeli raid.

"They can do anything they want -- on our side, we are ready, we will fight and we will resist," 18-year-old fighters Majid Abu Zmawa told AFP outside the mortuary in the northern city of Jenin where the bodies were prepared for burial.

Since Hamas launched an October 7 attack on Israel from Gaza, killing 1,400 Israelis,there has been a sharp increase in Israeli incursions into Palestinian towns and cities.

As Israeli forces pound Gaza with brutal and indiscriminate air strikes and a ground assault which the health ministry says has killed more than 9,200 people, local authorities say more than 140 have been killed in the West Bank.

"They claim that they are an undefeatable army but God is with us," said Abu Zmawa, strapping on a green headband with an assault rifle slung across his shoulder. "Martyrs will go to God."

Deadly overnight raids

The Palestinian health ministry said eight people were killed in overnight raids across the West Bank.

It said three men aged between 17 and 26 were killed in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups, but did not specify whether the dead were combatants.

The surface of a road near where the procession started was scarred with caterpillar tracks.

Residents said Israeli bulldozers had torn it up in an apparent attempt to expose roadside bombs, though the army reported no casualties in the pre-dawn raid.

Sidestreets were littered with hedgehog tank traps welded from metal girders and walls were postered with the images of dead militants.

Residents milled about next to a crushed car. One man picked up a handful of dust from what remained of the road surface and let it run through his fingers.

"The (Israeli) army is under pressure," said Amer Torkman, whose convenience store is now fronted by a mess of churned tarmac. "They want to blow the pressure away, so they don't leave anything alone here.

"All the material stuff can be rebuilt," the 54-year-old said. "We just hope the people remain safe and sound."

Ethnic cleansing continues in the West Bank and here there is no "But Hamas..." https://t.co/92jLk5FoIA

— Dr Andreas Krieg (@andreas_krieg) November 3, 2023

Funerals

The bodies of the three fighters emerged from the hospital mortuary held aloft on stretchers.

One was wrapped in the Palestinian flag, another the flag of the Islamic Jihad movement.

At one point an assault rifle was hefted up onto one of the stretchers as a crowd of young men chanting in unison marched through the streets past the smouldering remains of burnt tyres.

Later a boy barely in his teens led the procession, struggling to carry an assault rifle.

More children trailed behind carrying the black and yellow colours of Islamic Jihad, as men in balaclavas fired in the air.

The procession closed in on a mosque where militants carried their guns inside for funeral prayers.

The bodies emerged shortly after and were carried to a prepared grave.

One armed man pulled down his balaclava to kiss one of the dead before all three were lowered into the earth.