Israel transfers bodies of slain Palestinians

Mourners carry the body of Sadiq Ziad Gharbiyeh during the boys funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin on
23 December.
Nedal EshtayahAPA images

Maureen Clare Murphy-24 December

2015
This week Israel transferred the bodies of several Palestinians killed by its forces
during alleged attacks in recent weeks and which have been withheld from their
families.
The Palestinian health ministry stated on Thursday that 135 Palestinians have been

killed since the beginning of October. Almost two dozen Israelis were slain during the
same period.
More than half of the Palestinians killed were shot dead during alleged attacks a
result of what the Israeli human rights group BTselem condemned as an unwritten
shoot to kill policy.
The bodies of dozens of Palestinians have been held including several children
after Israel approved a number of repressive measures in mid-October following two
weeks of heightened violence that shows no sign of ebbing.
These measures, including the demolition of homes belonging to family members of
alleged assailants, have been criticized by human rights groups as collective
punishment that is illegal under international law.
Israels public security minister, Gilad Erdan, said at the time that funeral processions
of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces turn into an exhibition of support for terror and
incitement to murder.
The military and intelligence establishment have had divergent views on the policy,
and some bodies had been returned on condition that the Palestinian
Authority prevent mass funerals, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretzreported last month.
Prior to what has been dubbed the intifada of the knives, Israel imposed conditions
on Palestinian families in Jerusalem stipulating that funerals of slain relatives be
limited in attendance and take place late at night.
Hundreds of Palestinian fighters have been buried in Israels secret cemeteries of
numbers over the years, and their bodies have sometimes been used as bargaining
chips in prisoner exchange deals.
Last week the rights group BTselem described the wihholding of bodies as patently
immoral and yet another instance of Israeli authorities disregard for the lives of
Palestinians even after their death.
Palestinians, particularly in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, which has borne
the brunt of Israels crackdown on the ongoing uprising, have held frequent protests
calling for the transfer of bodies so that their families may bury them.

Children buried
In the last two days, Israel returned the bodies of four children shot dead in the last
month.
The Quds news site reported that the bodies of 15-year-old Abdallah Nasasra and 16year-old Alaa Hashash were transferred on Thursday.
Nasasra was killed at Huwwara military checkpoint near the West Bank city
of Nablus on Thursday, 17 December; Israeli police said that the boy had charged at
soldiers with a knife.
No Israelis were injured during the incident and a Palestinian ambulance driver said
that soldiers prevented medical teams from treating the teen.
Hashash was shot after allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier at the same
checkpoint last month.
Samah Abd al-Mumin Abdallah, 18, died last week from her wounds sustained during
the same incident. She was sitting in her fathers car when she was hit by a stray bullet
after Israeli forces opened fire on Hashash.
And on Wednesday, Israel returned the bodies of two 16-year-old boys Ahmad Abu
al-Rab and Sadiq Ziad Gharbiya who were shot dead last month.
Abu al-Rab was killed and 17-year-old Mahmoud Kamil wounded on 2 November
when Israeli soldiers opened fire at the boys at the Jalameh checkpoint in the northern
West Bank, in what the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights described as a crime of
excessive use of force.
Eyewitness testimony collected by Defense for Children International Palestine indicates that Ahmad Abu al-Rab was still alive, on his knees and surrounded
by Israeli soldiers just before he was killed.
Gharbiya was slain by Israeli forces at a checkpoint near the West Bank town of Abu
Dis after he allegedly attempted to stab a soldier on 10 November.
The Palestinian news network Quds published videos of Abu alRab and Gharbiyas funerals.

Palestinians carry the body of Maram Hassouna during her funeral in the West Bank
city of Nablus on 22 December.
Nedal EshtayahAPA images
On Tuesday, hundreds attended the funeral of 19-year-old Maram Hassouna in
Nablus.
The university student was shot dead on 1 December after allegedly attempting to stab
an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint outside an Israeli settlement.
She had previously spent a year in an Israeli prison after she was charged with
attempting to stab an Israeli soldier at the same checkpoint near Enav settlement two
years ago, the Maan News Agency reported.
Another young woman, Rasha Uweisi, 23, was buried in Qalqiliya several weeks after
she was shot dead after allegedly attempting to stab soldiers at a checkpoint near an
Israeli settlement south of the West Bank city.

Grandmother mourned

Tharwat al-Sharawi in an image circulated on social media.

That same day, Palestinians in Hebron buried Tharwat al-Sharawi, a 72-year-old
grandmother who was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers several weeks ago.
Video of the incident shows Israeli forces opening fire on al-Sharawis car as it
approached them at a moderate speed.
They continued to fire on the vehicle even after it passed them and entered a nearby
gas station and no soldier was injured in the incident, according to BTselem.
The video footage indicates that the shooting at al-Sharawis car persisted and

intensified after she passed the soldiers, even when she no longer posed any danger,
the rights group stated.
Al-Sharawis son Ayoub told media his mother had been on her way to lunch at her
sisters house when she was killed and rejected the claim that she had attempted to
attack the soldiers at the checkpoint.
Amnesty International determined that Israels use of lethal force against al-Sharawi
was unlawful even if she had intended to harm the soldiers.
And on Monday, Israel handed over the body of a Palestinian citizen of the country
who is accused of killing an Israeli soldier at a bus station in the southern city of Bir alSaba (Beersheva).
Muhannad al-Oqbi, 21, from the Bedouin village of Hura, was shot dead on 18
October after killing Israeli soldier Omri Levi and injuring at least nine others,
according to Israeli police, the Maan News Agencyreported.
Israeli police transferred al-Oqbis body at around 10pm on the condition that no more
than 50 people attend his funeral, a relative of the slain man told Maan.
The relative added that police warned that they would confiscate al-Oqbis body if the
family did not comply.
Last month Taleb Abu Arar, a Bedouin member of Israels parliament,
the Knesset, called for the release of al-Oqbis body and said that video of the incident
does not prove al-Oqbis involvement.
During the same incident, Haftom Zarhum, an Eritrean asylum-seeker, was killed after
he was shot by a security guard and beaten by a mob who mistook him for the
perpetrator of the attack.
Indictment and investigation
And on Friday, Israel handed over the body of 14-year-old Hadil Awwad nearly a
month after she was slain and her 16-year-old cousin Nurhan Awwad seriously
wounded in a Jerusalem market.
Security video of the incident shows the scissor-wielding girls being knocked to the
ground and shot at close range before any attempt was made to arrest them.

The surviving teen has since been charged with attempted murder.
Israels attorney general has launched an investigation of a police officer over the
shooting of Nurhan following complaints that he shot the terrorist although she posed
no danger.

The body of Hadil Awwad, 14, is carried during the girls funeral in Qalandiya refugee
camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah on 18 December.
Oren ZivActiveStills
Though he shot at both Hadil and Nurhan, the police officer is only being investigated
for shooting the latter,Haaretz reported.
The officer is the first to be questioned for firing at a suspect during the current wave
of violence, according toHaaretz.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian rights group Addameer told the Maan News Agency this
week that Israel is expected to hand over the bodies of Palestinians from Jerusalem
who were slain in recent weeks.
Israel is withholding the bodies of more than a dozen Palestinians from the occupied
city, including four children, Maan reported.
Posted by Thavam