Wounded brother of Fatah leader dies in Israeli hospital
A PALESTINIAN man and the brother of a prominent militant in the occupied West Bank, died in an Israeli hospital yesterday, two days after being wounded in clashes with Israeli forces.
The Palestinian Health Ministry announced Daoud Zubeidi’s death, citing information from Israeli authorities, and armed groups vowed revenge.
He was the brother of Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander of the Fatah party’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank city of Jenin who escaped with five other militants from a maximum security Israeli prison in September. All were caught.
Daoud Zubeidi, 43, was shot in Jenin on Friday in exchanges of fire with Israeli troops and transferred to hospital in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. An Israeli officer was also killed in clashes in Jenin that day.
“We swear to God, the response to the martydom of leader ... Zubaidi will be painful, strong and unprecedented,” the Jenin Brigade, a group within the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, said in a statement.
Jenin has been a frequent target of intensified Israeli arrest raids following the killing, since March, of 18 people, including three police officers and a security guard, in Arab attacks in Israel and the West Bank.
The Israeli operations have often sparked clashes and brought the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or armed civilians since the beginning of the year to at least 43. The casualties include armed members of militant groups, lone assailants and bystanders.
On Wednesday, Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American and a veteran reporter for the Qatari-based Al Jazeera TV network, was shot dead in Jenin
during an Israeli raid in an incident that drew international concern.
Palestinian authorities have described her death as an assassination by Israeli forces, an allegation denied by Israel.
Israel initially suggested that Palestinian fire might have been to blame, but officials have since said they could not rule out that Israeli gunfire killed her. Israel has launched a probe into Abu Akleh’s death. Palestinians have called for an international inquiry.
On Friday, Israeli police charged at a crowd of Palestinian mourners at her funeral in Jerusalem, drawing an international outcry.
US officials conveyed Washington’s anger against Israel over its police beating Palestinians attending the funeral procession of Abu Akleh.
US and Israeli officials told Axios that US Ambassador to Israel Tom
Nides made clear to Israeli officials that it was important to the Biden administration that Abu Akleh’s funeral be honourable, peaceful and accessible for anyone who wanted to attend.
According to a video that circulated on social media, some participants of the funeral procession tried to attach a Palestinian flag to the coffin that Israeli police tried to prevent. The footage shows Israeli police using rubber batons to beat Palestinians participating in the funeral procession, which at one point almost caused them to drop the coffin.
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said that the UN called on the Israeli government to protect the freedom of peaceful assembly.
The journalist, 51, was shot in the head on Wednesday while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank.
Reporters on the scene said they were targeted by Israeli snipers when the group was alone in the streets of Jenin and were clearly identifiable as being members of the press.
Israel offered Palestine a joint investigation into Abu Akleh’s death. Palestine has rejected the offer to co-operate in the investigation.
On Friday morning, the Israeli Defence Forces said preliminary investigation could not unequivocally determine the source of the shooting that killed Abu Akleh.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was “deeply troubled” to see the Israeli police’s actions during the funeral.
In a rare, unanimous statement, the UN Security Council on Friday condemned the killing and called for “an immediate, thorough, transparent, and impartial investigation,” according to diplomats, who noted negotiations over the wording were particularly contentious.
Abu Akleh, a Christian, was a star reporter and her funeral drew massive crowds. As her body left St Joseph’s hospital in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, Israeli police stormed mourners who had hoisted Palestinian flags.
Israel forbids public displays of Palestinian flags and routinely intervenes against those who parade them at demonstrations or other gatherings.
Police said they had warned the crowd to stop “nationalistic” songs and were forced to act as “violent rioters (were) trying to disrupt the proper course of the funeral”.
But prominent Palestinian figure Hanan Ashrawi said the police charge on pallbearers showed Israel’s “inhumanity”. The EU tweeted that it was “appalled by the violence in the St Joseph Hospital compound and the level of unnecessary force exercised by Israeli police throughout the funeral procession”.
The French consulate-general said “police violence” at the hospital had been “deeply shocking”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply disturbed” by the violence, according to a spokesperson.
Thousands of Palestinian mourners attempted to follow the coffin towards the cemetery just outside the walled Old City. Police briefly attempted to prevent them but ultimately relented, allowing thousands to stream towards the graveside, and did not intervene as Palestinian flags were waved, AFP reporters said.
In a sign of Abu Akleh’s prominence, she was given what was described as a full state memorial service on Thursday at Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s compound in Ramallah before her body was transferred to Jerusalem.
“Her loss is a wound in our hearts,” said mourner Hadil Hamdan.
Grief over her killing spilt beyond the Palestinian territories, with protests erupting in Turkey, Sudan and elsewhere. She “was the sister of all Palestinians,” her brother Antoun Abu Akleh told AFP.
Fresh violence erupted in the West Bank, including a raid and clashes around Jenin refugee camp.
An Israeli officer killed was identified as Noam Raz, a 47-year-old father of six
The Palestinian health ministry said 13 Palestinians were wounded in the clashes, one seriously.
An AFP photographer said Israeli forces had surrounded the home of a suspect, besieging two men inside and firing anti-tank grenades at the house in an effort to flush them out. |