Months later, Palestinian families mourn their dead

 The bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces were returned to their families on Saturday as families carried out emotional funerals.

Israeli forces often withhold the bodies of alleged attackers in order to punish the families.

One of the funerals was for Sara Dawoud Tarayrah, 27, after she was shot dead after leaving Al Ebrahimi mosque in Hebron in July.

The female martyr was instructed by the occupation forces to enter a caravan and submit to a body search, according to Shaikh Hifzi Abu Snainah, who heads the mosque.

He said that a female soldier approached Tarayrah to search her, at which point the mosque’s Palestinian guards clearly heard her shout: “This is a mobile phone, not a knife.

Abu Snainah said the female soldier threw a gas bomb at the caravan in which Sara was being held, and then the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from different directions.

Meanwhile, clashes erupted yesterday and a Palestinian youth was shot and killed in the village of Beit Rima near Ramallah yesterday, during clashes with Israeli occupation forces.

Ahmad Hazem Attah Al Rimawi, 19, succumbed to gunshots in the chest, while three other Palestinians suffered serious injuries and were sent to hospital in critical condition, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Sources in Ramallah told Gulf News that a large Israeli military force began raiding the villages of Beit Rima, Kafr Ein, Deir Ghassan and Qarawat Bani Zaid in the area surrounding Ramallah in order to carry out arbitrary arrests.

Live bullets used

Occupation forces used tear gas and rubber coated bullets on residents of the villages, but Palestinians allege they also used live bullets.

Al Rimawi was the son of a freed Palestinian prisoner, Hazem Al Rimawi, who spent more than 14 years behind Israeli bars and was released in September.

Israeli occupation forces have escalated raids on Palestinian cities in Area A, which is under Palestinian security and administrative control.

Israeli forces are not allowed to enter these villages which is why Palestinians throw rocks and protest the raids.

Violence has been escalating in the area since October 2015 when Israel stepped up its raids on the Muslim holy site of Al Haram Al Sharif in occupied Jerusalem.

Over 275 Palestinians have lost their lives in clashes with the occupation forces, as well as in stabbings and car ramming attacks which have rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Palestinians view these attacks as necessary to protect Al Haram Al Sharif — the third holiest site in Islam.

International legal and human rights organisations have documented Israel’s practice of extrajudicial executions among other crimes contrary to international law.

In January, concern about possible extrajudicial killings by Israeli forces during the current wave of violence was raised by the Swedish foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom. The diplomatic row that ensued led to her being called “irresponsible and delusional” by Israel’s foreign ministry, and told she was not welcome in the country.

In March, an Israeli rights group released a video showing the moment an Israeli soldier appears to shoot dead a wounded Palestinian in Hebron minutes after he had stabbed another soldier

source : gulfnews