Palestinian Said to Be Killed by Israeli Soldiers
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Version 0 of 1. TEL AVIV — Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man on Friday after a funeral procession turned into a violent confrontation in the West Bank, Palestinian medical workers said. The episode took place near the Palestinian town of Beit Ummar, in the southern West Bank, during a funeral for a Palestinian man that was attended by several thousand people. The funeral procession apparently turned violent as the mourners passed an Israeli watchtower near the town’s cemetery. A spokeswoman for Israel’s military said Friday that Palestinians had begun hurling rocks and bottles and rolling burning tires at Israeli soldiers. She said the soldiers had fired small-caliber bullets at “the lower extremities” of four demonstrators who appeared to be endangering them. A Palestinian medic who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters said that the soldiers had shot one man around his right kidney and that he was not breathing when he was carried to an ambulance. Other medics identified the man as Ziyad Awad. Another man was shot in the shoulder, the first medic said. The Palestinian news media reported that the funeral was for Jafar Awad, 22, who died three months after he was freed from an Israeli prison. The reports said that he had been hospitalized since his release and that Palestinians accused the Israeli prison authorities of neglecting his health. It was unclear whether he was related to the man shot on Friday. A stabbing in the northern West Bank on Wednesday seriously wounded an Israeli soldier, breaking several weeks of relative calm. |