Palestinians Mourn Senior Official as Israel Disperses Protests
Thousands of Palestinians on Thursday mourned a senior official who died in a confrontation with Israeli troops, while the army sent reinforcements and dispersed protesters in the West Bank.
The Palestinian leadership blamed Israel for the "killing" of 55-year-old Ziad Abu Ein, as tensions threatened to boil over into another round of violence in the occupied territories.
Officials and onlookers streamed into the Ramallah headquarters of President Mahmoud Abbas for the funeral procession, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said.
Uniformed Palestinians carried Abu Ein's coffin, draped in a Palestinian flag as nationalist songs blared and mourners chanted "Revenge!" and "Your blood will not be spilled in vain!"
He was buried at a cemetery in al-Bireh on the outskirts of Ramallah.
Schools closed in a day of mourning and posters of Abu Ein appeared on walls throughout the city.
A short distance away, additional Israeli troops and border guards deployed in anticipation of tensions with mourners and protesters, an army spokeswoman said, especially given the cemetery's proximity to the Jewish settlement of Psagot.
Police reported minor clashes in several places as Palestinians threw stones at security forces in Psagot, as well as in the West Bank villages of Nabi Saleh and Qalandia, and the city of Hebron.
The protesters were dispersed with "riot dispersal means" but there were no injuries or arrests, police said.
Abu Ein died Wednesday after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers during an anti-settlements protest march by roughly 300 Palestinians who intended to plant olive trees as a symbolic act, an AFP photographer said.
Troops fired tear gas, three soldiers grabbed Abu Ein and he was struck in the chest during the confrontation. Videos circulating online showed the soldiers pushing him firmly in the chest and neck.
Abu Ein collapsed and was treated by an Israeli army doctor, but died later in hospital.
"After hearing the results of the post-mortem, the Palestinian government holds Israel fully responsible for the killing of Ziad Abu Ein," government spokesman Ihab Bseiso told reporters in Ramallah on Thursday.
A Palestinian minister said the post-mortem, which was carried out by Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian doctors, had shown that Abu Ein was killed by the actions of the troops.
"The reason for the death of Abu Ein was his being hit by (Israeli) occupation troops and because of the heavy use of tear gas," Palestinian civil affairs minister Hussein al-Sheikh told AFP.
Sheikh said Israeli forces had prevented Abu Ein from getting to a hospital quickly enough to save his life.
Israel's health ministry said the death was caused by a "blockage of the coronary artery" which "could have been caused by stress", adding that Abu Ein suffered from poor health including heart disease.
The incident prompted Abbas to threaten measures in response, saying "all options are open for discussion and implementation", but without elaborating.
Islamist movement Hamas, rivals of Abbas' West Bank administration and de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip, had urged the Palestinian Authority (PA) to cease security coordination with Israel.
Israel urged calm, with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon expressing regret over the death and saying a military inquiry had begun.
"Security stability is important for both sides," he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message through one of his aides to Abbas in which he "pointed to the need to calm the situation and act responsibly," his office said.
President Reuven Rivlin called Abu Ein's death "painful" and said Israel was committed to a "careful examination into the events."
However, hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman lashed out at the PA for accusing Israel over the death, accusations he said were false and disputed by the autopsy's findings and solely "intended at inciting the Palestinian public."
Holding Israel responsible for Abu Ein's death was a Palestinian attempt to "exacerbate the conflict", he said in a Thursday statement.
The death of Abu Ein, who was a former PA deputy minister and was responsible for dealing with the settlement issue, follows months of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and a wave of unrest in the West Bank and Arab east Jerusalem.
Peace talks collapsed in April after nine months of fruitless Israeli-Palestinian meetings that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry worked hard to revive.
In the absence of talks, the Palestinians are pushing a U.N. Security Council resolution which they hope will pass by the end of the year, giving Israel two years to withdraw from occupied territory.
If the United States vetoes it as expected, the Palestinian leadership says it will then move to sue Israel through the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.
Kerry is to travel to Rome on Sunday to meet Netanyahu and discuss the situation in the region.
Source: Agence France Presse
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