RAMALLAH, Palestine 

A Palestinian woman and child were killed by Israeli army fire in a military raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Monday, the Health Ministry said.

A ministry statement added that four other people were injured, without providing further details.

Israeli forces raided the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm amid clashes with armed Palestinians, according to witnesses.

“Israeli forces bombed a house near my home,” Kamal Ahmed Jaber, a resident, told Anadolu.

“We heard gunfire. The house next to us exploded and nearby houses were damaged,” he added.

Shafiq Jab, another Palestinian resident in the camp, said he was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers during the raid.

“An Israeli officer ordered my wife, daughters and me out of the house,” the 60-year-old told Anadolu.

“Israeli forces searched me before I was locked up and questioned inside a room along with my wife and daughters,” he added.

“They took me as a human shield to my neighbor’s house,” the Palestinian elder said. “They also searched my house and vandalized it.”

The Israeli military has been regularly conducting raids in the West Bank over the past few years, which escalated with the start of the war on Gaza last October. Palestinians have also faced violent attacks from illegal settlers.

At least 554 Palestinians have since been killed, including 133 children and nearly 5,300 injured by Israeli army fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio and Ahmed Asmar