Tensions flared in the West Bank on Friday as angry and sometimes armed confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces took place across the occupied territory after a deadly raid by Israeli troops. The Palestinian health ministry said 13 people including five children were killed on Thursday in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem. Israeli media said Israeli troops used a drone before engaging in a prolonged gun battle with armed groups in the camp that left civilians and several militants dead. The organisation Defence for Children International in Palestine said Israeli forces used an American-supplied Apache helicopter, which “fired a missile toward a group of Palestinian civilians, mostly children”, and prevented Palestinian ambulances from reaching the wounded. Thousands from the camp attended funerals for those killed in the attack, including supporters of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a paramilitary offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood group. Crowds of supporters of the Islamic Jihad group chanted “revenge” and waved flags, an indication of the increasing prominence of armed groups in the West Bank. “It’s not worth blaming the fighters or giving excuses about Hamas, or Fatah, or the Islamic Jihad being responsible for our suffering – the responsibility lies with the occupation,” said Mohammed Zuhdi, a resident of Nur Shams camp, in reference to Israeli forces. “No one wants to die, but people get angry when they see women and children getting massacred, and they protest – then [are] killed by the Israeli army,” he said. “I’m here to stand with my people. Even if you do nothing to the Israelis they will shoot you – no one is safe these days.” Ahmad, a 21-year-old member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who joined the protests, claimed that one Israeli soldier had been killed and others injured in the raid. “The Israeli soldiers are taking their feelings out on women and children,” he said. “I don’t know how they are planning a ground war in Gaza if they can’t enter a camp in Nur Shams.” The Israeli military confirmed that a reservist sergeant from the Israeli border police was killed in the raid, which lasted more than 24 hours and involved an aircraft. In a statement, the IDF said they were targeting members of Hamas who shot four Israelis in the West Bank settlement of Eli earlier this year. They added that Israeli forces arrested more than 60 terror suspects in overnight raids in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. The confrontations on Friday followed calls by Hamas for a “day of rage” across the West Bank, amid increasing anger across the Middle East after Israel’s attack on Gaza – and particularly after the blast at al-Ahli hospital that is reported to have killed hundreds. Palestinians have blamed Israeli forces for the strike, while the Israeli military has maintained that a misfired rocket by the PIJ caused the casualties. Despite a crackdown by Israeli forces and Palestinian Authority security forces, many ordinary people in the West Bank also said they felt the need to protest. “We have no weapons to fight, but at least we can show the entire world that we stand with the children of Gaza,” said Nasser Saeed from the al Jalazone refugee camp, at a protest at a checkpoint near Ramallah earlier this week.