TULKARM, Thursday, October 19, 2023 (WAFA) – A total of 13 Palestinians, including five children, were killed today during a wide-scale Israeli army assault on Nour Shams refugee camps in Tulkarm in the north of the West Bank, according to the Ministry of Health and sources.

The Israeli occupation army started early this morning a large-scale military assault on Nour Shams refugee camp and neighboring areas, where one person was shot and killed shortly after the assault began.

The army sealed off the camp and prevented the movement of people, as well as kept journalists and ambulances out as its forces entrenched in the camp.

Later in the afternoon, as the assault continued, two army helicopters were seen flying over the city as a drone fired missiles at certain areas in the center of the camp causing deaths and injuries.

Taha Irani, the head of the Popular Committee for Services in Nour Shams Camp, said seven Palestinians killed by Israeli troops have been taken to Thabet Thabet Public Hospital in Tulkarm.

Meanwhile, the lifeless bodies of another five Palestinians killed by the troops are still trapped in the Abu Bakr Al-Sadiq Mosque in the camp, as Israeli occupation forces are preventing ambulance vehicles from entering the camp to transport those killed and wounded.

With no ambulances allowed in, residents said the wounded were smuggled out of the camp and rushed to the hospital in Tulkarm in private cars.

M.K./M.N.