Palestinian nurse finds his father among victims of Nablus raid

Elias Al Ashqar helped doctors try to save an elderly man's life - without realising who it was

Palestinian nurse Elias Al Ashqar stands by a banner bearing an obituary for his father Abdel Aziz, one of 11 people killed during a raid on the West Bank city of Nablus on February 22. AFP

When Israel conducted its deadliest military raid in the occupied West Bank in almost two decades this week, Elias Al Ashqar, a Palestinian hospital nurse, rushed to help.

Mr Al Ashqar, 25, worked with doctors to save the wounded as critical case after critical case succumbed, including an elderly man who at first he did not recognise amid the chaos of incoming casualties.

It was only later, after returning from helping other victims, that he realised it was his father.

"I was on my regular shift in the hospital on Wednesday morning. I was busy with a group of medical students from An-Najah University," Mr Al Ashqar said.

It was then that the emergency department alarm bell sounded, warning of multiple incoming casualties, an increasingly frequent occurrence amid the growing violence of recent months.

As he entered, he saw two people on opposite beds. "The doctors were trying to resuscitate them," he recalled, tears welling in his eyes.

"I helped the doctors with the first patient. He was young but soon died, so I tried to help save the life of the second man without looking at his face.

"The doctors were trying to resuscitate him, so I left them to help other cases, but I had a strange feeling the second wounded man belonged to me.

"I ran back and asked about him, and they told me that he had been martyred, so I subconsciously pulled back the curtain, and discovered that the martyr was my father."

Mr Al Ashqar said his father Abdel Aziz, 65, had been returning from prayers in the Old City when he was caught up in the Israeli raid.

His father was one of 11 Palestinians killed in the raid, most of them civilians. More than 80 others were injured.

Recent clashes in Nablus are at least partly the result of the emergence of a new militant group in the city dubbed the Lions' Den, that claims to rise above traditional factional loyalties and has been blamed for a number of attacks on Israeli targets.

Israel said Wednesday's raid targeted two Lions' Den members, as well as a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group, all of whom were killed.

As young men lined up to offer him their condolences on Friday, Mr Al Ashqar said his father had simply been going about his everyday life. He lamented the prospects of ever winning justice for him.

"I don't know whether the Palestinian person is different to the European or American person," he said.

"We just wish we could have a life; we just want a life."