Funeral held for young man killed by Israeli forces in Nablus

Seven-year-old Khaled stood to one side as a sombre procession walked by, crying. Sadly, the little boy is accustomed to such processions, but this time it hit home.

“I want my brother… I want my brother,” he sobbed as his aunt comforted him on Thursday.

His brother, Khalil Yahya Anis, is the 20-year-old killed by Israeli forces during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to Palestinian health officials.

Anis was shot Thursday as Israeli troops descended upon a house in the Ein Beit al-Ma’ refugee camp belonging to the family of Osama al-Taweel, a man accused of being involved in the killing of an Israeli soldier last year.

Al-Taweel is in prison, but Israel demolishes the homes of people accused of attacks on Israelis, a practice critics say is collective punishment.

During the raid, an armed confrontation broke out between Israeli forces and residents, during which Anis was killed, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said.

Two others were injured and al-Taweel’s house was demolished during the raid, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. The incident displaces his parents and sister who lived in the house, the agency also reported.

The Red Crescent said 170 people were treated for suffocation due to the heavy tear gas fired by the Israeli soldiers during the raid.

Anis was laid to rest in the camp on Thursday, with shocked mourners carrying his shrouded body on their shoulders and his mother barely able to stand.

Like many young Palestinian men and boys, Anis knew only occupation throughout his life and found himself unemployed with no real prospects for the future.

In spite of that hopelessness, he was much loved by his friends and family, photojournalist Ayman Nobani told Al Jazeera.

Anis’s grandmother spoke to journalists at the funeral procession, seemingly resigned to the fate that had befallen her beloved grandson.

“He was so kind, ambitious and polite… everything good that you can think of. I loved him so much and we would laugh so much when he came to visit me,” she said.

“All I hope for now is that we meet again one day in the gardens of Paradise.”

Israel has conducted raids in the West Bank since it occupied it after the 1967 war, leading to the death, injury or detention under unclear conditions of hundreds of Palestinians a year.

This year, at least 158 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Twenty-six of them were children.

With the most right-wing Israeli government ever in power right now, the near-nightly military raids in the occupied territory are increasing in frequency and scale.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, and the government has indicated that it plans to support the expansion of this presence, illegal under international law.