OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 4 January 2004 — Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinian protesters in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. Later they opened fire on the funeral procession for the dead and shot a pallbearer. The 17-year-old pallbearer was pronounced clinically dead in hospital, after soldiers shot him in the head as he helped carry the coffin of his 15-year-old cousin.
Senior Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the killings as “atrocities” and said he held Israel “fully responsible for the consequences of this escalation.” He urged sponsors of the stalled road map — the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia — to do more to restore peace in the occupied territories.
Palestinian witnesses said Amjed El-Masri, 15, was shot in the chest by a sniper as he threw stones at an Israeli armored vehicle from a rooftop in the old city area of Nablus. Rawhi Shuman, 19, was shot in the chest in a separate incident, medics said. Both died of their injuries in hospital.
A third Palestinian, Amer Arafat, 26, was pronounced dead on arrival. He had been shot in the back in another confrontation with soldiers.
Speaking about the funeral incident, a military source said soldiers had opened fire at a Palestinian armed with a gun and another who held a petrol bomb, hitting both. Witnesses said the soldiers shot, apparently without provocation.
In a separate incident, an explosive charge was detonated as troops patrolled Nablus during a military curfew, causing no injuries, the Israeli spokesman said.
“We have a catastrophic situation in Nablus,” Mahmoud El-Aloul, the Palestinian Authority’s governor for the city, said.
Nablus has been a scene of frequent clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the last few weeks and through much of the three-year Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in which more than 2,290 Palestinians have been killed.
The downtown area has been under curfew for at least six days as Israeli soldiers search for those the Israeli Army says who are planning more attacks in Israel.
Yesterday was the city’s bloodiest day since four Palestinians were killed in fighting there on Dec. 18. At least two other Palestinians have died in clashes in the city in the past week.
In the Gaza Strip, soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian outside a military outpost near Khan Younis. Palestinian security officials said he was 17 years old. A military source said the shooting occurred on Friday night and the body was found yesterday, lying beside a bomb. A limited Israeli military presence was reported again in Jenin yesterday, a day after a long blockade on the West Bank city had been lifted. The Israeli source said several roads in the Jenin area were blocked intermittently.
— Additional input from agencies
