Relatives say an entire family has been killed in Israel’s deadliest attack in the West Bank since October 7

Relatives say an entire family has been killed in Israel’s deadliest attack in the West Bank since October 7

TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a cafe in the West Bank The military said targeted Palestinian militants also killed a family of four, including two young children, relatives told The Associated Press on Friday.

The attack hit a three-story building in the Tulkarem refugee camp late Thursday, setting it on fire, destroying a popular cafe and killing at least 18 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry. It was the deadliest attack in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a year ago.

On Friday, paramedics searched through the rubble in the destroyed cafe and collected human remains in small boxes. Young boys and men walked among the ruins of the shop, which had holes in its ceiling and debris on the floor, digging past bloodstained furniture and torn iron beams to salvage something.

Among the dead were the Abu Zahra family: Muhammad, a bakery worker; his wife Saja; and their two children, Sham, 8, and Karam, 6, according to the man’s brother, Mustafa Abu Zahra, who said the family lived above the cafe. He added that one of Mohammed’s brothers-in-law was also in the apartment at the time and was killed.

The Israeli military said several militants were killed in the attack, including the Hamas leader at the camp, whom it accused of planning and taking part in several attacks on Israeli civilians. Tulkarem, known as a hotbed of Palestinian militancy, is a trouble spot in the West Bank and a frequent target of Israeli military attacks.

Hamas, which did not immediately count any of the dead as fighters, condemned the attack and called on Palestinians in Tulkarem to revolt.

Israel has carried out several large-scale raids in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7. While airstrikes on Palestinian territory were once rare, they have become more frequent since the war broke out as Israeli forces crack down and say they are aimed at preventing attacks on their citizens.

Israeli fire has killed at least 722 Palestinians Palestinian health authorities say they have been in the West Bank since October 7. During this period, Palestinian militants carried out a series of attacks on soldiers at checkpoints and inside Israel.

A shooting attack in Tel Aviv earlier this week At least six people were killed in the attack, which Israeli police said was carried out by Palestinians from the West Bank.

Nimer Fayat, the owner of Dr. Coffee, said the cafe was full of “regular customers who came to eat and drink” when the strike occurred around 10:15 p.m

“What happened was a very serious blow, the likes of which we have not experienced in the past since the Al-Aqsa Intifada,” he said, using a Palestinian term for the second intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s.

Paramedics who rushed to the area witnessed a horrific scene with body parts thrown onto power lines by the force of the explosion, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, whose teams brought nine dead people to hospital.

A full list of the dead and wounded was not immediately released by the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Yasser Jibra, another relative of the Abu Zahras, said the attack was “like lightning.”

“Look around, the destruction is so obvious,” he said, adding that it was difficult to identify the bodies of his loved ones.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on civilian deaths in the attack. Israel says it is taking care to protect itself from such deaths.

But that means little to Jibra.

“This is the work of the criminal occupation, which does not take into account the presence of a child or a woman, an elderly person or a young person,” he said as he stood in the destroyed cafe. “They are allowed to do anything.”

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Associated Press reporter Julia Frankel and producer Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem contributed to this report.