- Title: WEST BANK: Palestinians bury men accused of killing Israeli teens
- Date: 23rd September 2014
- Summary: HEBRON, WEST BANK (SEPTEMBER 23, 2014) (REUTERS) THOUSANDS GATHERED FOR FUNERAL PROCESSION, WAVING HAMAS AND PALESTINIAN FLAGS HAMAS AND PALESTINIAN FLAGS FLYING AT FUNERAL VARIOUS OF MOURNERS MARCHING IN FUNERAL PROCESSION, CARRYING BODIES OF MARWAN KAWASME AND AMAR ABU AYSHA MOURNERS MARCHING AND CHANTING SLOGANS VARIOUS OF BODIES BEING CARRIED ON STRETCHERS MOURNERS CAR
- Embargoed: 8th October 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAD7WUXYVR2ROZZSD4M1CF9HDLT
- Story Text: Thousands of mourners on Tuesday (September 23) marched in a funeral procession for two Palestinian men who were shot dead by the Israeli army, after being accused by the military of abducting and killing three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank in June, an incident that spiralled into a seven-week war in Gaza.
Weaving Palestinian and green Hamas flags the mourners carried the bodies of Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha, both in their 30s, through the streets of the West Bank city of Hebron.
Israel had spent months searching for Kawasme and Abu Aysha. They were shot dead during a gun battle after Israeli troops surrounded a house in the city before dawn, the army and residents said.
Kawasme and Abu Aysha were suspected by Israeli authorities of carrying out the kidnapping and killing of the three teenage seminary students, who were abducted while hitchhiking at night near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on June 12.
The military said army and police forces were trying to arrest the two suspects when a firefight erupted. It said they were both killed in the fire exchange.
Kawasme and Abu Aysha were affiliated with Hamas, which initially denied any link to the June attack.
Last month, however, the group acknowledged responsibility, although its leadership said it had no advance knowledge that the men were planning to abduct the students.
Israeli forces have conducted widespread sweeps across the West Bank in the past three months, rounding up hundreds of suspected Hamas members in house-to-house raids in the hunt for the suspects behind the attack.
The abduction and killing of Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, caused alarm throughout Israel and set off a cycle of violence, including the killing of Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khudair, 16, by three Israelis who have been arrested and charged.
Khudair's killing led to clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli police in East Jerusalem, while the round-up of Hamas suspects across the West Bank provoked rocket fire at Israel from militants in Gaza, leading to the war.
Gaza medical officials say 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in the 50-day conflict, while 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were also killed. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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