Israelis use teargas at boy’s funeral
BEIT UMMAR: Clashes broke out Thursday between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians at the funeral of a Palestinian boy killed the day before in the occupied West Bank, a correspondent reported.
Mohamad Al Alami, 12, died on Wednesday after being shot by Israeli soldiers while travelling in a car with his father in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar northwest of Hebron, Palestinian authorities said.
On Thursday, a procession followed the boy’s body, draped in the flag of Fatah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s party, through the streets of Beit Ummar, where he was buried.
Later, hundreds of Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers who responded by firing tear gas, the AFP correspondent said.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday that its soldiers had noticed men getting out of a vehicle and digging in the ground near Beit Ummar checkpoint before leaving.
Upon checking the area, the soldiers found two bags, one of which contained the body of a newborn child, it said in a statement.
The soldiers had later spotted the vehicle again and attempted to stop it using standard procedures, including shouting and firing warning shots into the air.
“After the vehicle did not stop, one of the soldiers fired towards the vehicle’s wheels in order to stop it,” the army said.
“We are looking into the claim that a Palestinian minor was killed as a result of the gunfire,” it said, adding the incident was being reviewed by senior commanding officers.
Alami was the second young Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in days, after 17-year-old Mohammed Munir Al Tamimi died on Saturday of gunshot wounds suffered the day before in the Palestinian village of Beita.
And late on Tuesday, a 41-year-old Palestinian was shot dead, also near Beita, the Palestinian health ministry said.
All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are regarded as illegal by most of the international community.
Separately, three-quarters of the members of the Israeli parliament on Wednesday called on Ben & Jerry’s to reverse its decision to stop selling ice cream in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.
In a letter to the Vermont-based ice cream maker, the lawmakers said they were “standing together against the shameful actions” of the company.