OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 1 March 2004 — Israeli troops yesterday shot dead a Palestinian teenager at the funeral of a fighter killed hours earlier.
Three other Palestinians were also wounded in the exchange of gunfire with the Israeli troops at the Balata refugee camp near the northern town of Nablus.
The teenager killed was identified as Riad Abu Shallal, 15. He was attending the funeral of Mohammed Awis, who had been shot dead hours earlier by troops patrolling the camp.
Awis, 24, was a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Fatah movement. He had been on an Israeli wanted list.
The latest deaths brought the Palestinian death toll since the start of the intifada in September 2000 to 2,837.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei accused Israel of trying to torpedo hopes for peace with a new round of deadly violence in the West Bank as thousands thronged the streets of Gaza at funerals for victims of an Israeli airstrike.
“This is an escalation from the Israeli side designed to close any hope of reaching a cease-fire agreement,” Qorei told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah as Israeli security forces, bracing themselves for retaliation, beefed up defenses along the border with the Palestinian territories.
At funerals in Gaza for the victims of a helicopter strike on Saturday evening, a leader of Islamic Jihad put Israel on notice to expect revenge attacks.
“The Al-Quds Brigades cannot be silent in the face of these massacres and this assassination policy,” Abdullah Al-Shami told the crowds in Gaza City.
More than 4,000 Palestinians turned out to pay their last respects to Mahmud Jouda, 30, as his body was taken in a cortege from Gaza City to the nearby Jabalya refugee camp.
Jouda, a leader of Jihad’s armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, was killed alongside fellow fighter Amin Al-Dahduh, 42, in the Israeli helicopter strike.
Dahduh’s 20-year-old cousin Ayman, not affiliated to the group, was also killed. The cousins were also buried in Gaza City yesterday.
An Israeli military spokesman said the strike targeted “a vehicle carrying senior Islamic Jihad terrorists who were responsible for planning a number of terror attacks against Israeli civilian and military targets”. Israeli security services fear any reprisals will be launched from the West Bank.
The weekend flare-up in violence came as Fatah Revolutionary Council adopted a resolution late Saturday stating its opposition to attacks on Israeli civilians and support for a “peaceful struggle” with Israel.
Qorei has been trying to persuade armed factions to declare a halt to their campaign of violence but has warned chances of such a move are being undermined by Israeli attacks.
