Western countries on suicide blast alert
Mourners chant vows of revenge for slaying of Palestinian teen
He was taken from his native surroundings in the loneliest of circumstances, snatched from an empty street in Jerusalem and forced into a car by three men who are suspected of murdering him.
On Friday, the body of Mohammed Abu Khdeir was returned to the scene of his abduction for a mass funeral attended by thousands, where mourners chanted vows of revenge against Israel and fired rifle shots over his grave.
Mohammed, a student electrician who loved Palestinian folk dancing, was kidnapped shortly before dawn on Wednesday as he waited for morning prayers to start in his local mosque. Police later found him dead, his body burnt beyond recognition, in a forest in West Jerusalem in what Palestinians believe was a revenge killing for the deaths of three Israelis.
Men shouted in anger and women wailed in grief as the 16-yearold’s body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, was carried through the debris-strewn streets of East Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighbourhood to a local cemetery. “Enough is enough, we will pay with our blood,” “Intifada (uprising) is the only way” and “Hamas, carry out suicide bombings” were among the slogans chanted by male mourners, many with their faces covered with masks and kaffiyehs, the traditional Palestinian scarf.
After the burial, clashes broke out between masked Palestinian youths, who threw stones and erected burning barricades, and Israeli police, who responded by firing tear gas. Confrontations were reported in other Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem.
It was the second funeral in three days to send shock waves through the battle-scarred Israeli-Palestinian political landscape.
Tens of thousands of Israelis turned out last Tuesday for a ceremony for three murdered Jewish teenagers, whose bodies had been found in the West Bank the day before, more than two weeks after they disappeared. Israeli officials allege the murders were committed by members of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.
Mohammed’s death triggered fears of a return to levels of violence not seen in the conflict for around a decade, amid Palestinian allegations that he was killed by right-wing Jewish extremists in retribution for the three murdered Israelis.