Palestinian Authority police officers on Wednesday fired tear gas at Palestinians attending the funeral of Abdel Fattah Kharousheh, a Hamas terrorist who was killed by the Israeli security forces during a raid on Jenin Refugee Camp.
The incident at the funeral sparked a wave of protests and condemnations from many Palestinians.
Kharousheh, 49, a resident of Askar Refugee Camp near Nablus, was suspected of carrying out the February 26 shooting attack in the town of Hawara (also near Nablus) in which brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv were killed.
Kharousheh was released from Israeli prison four months ago after serving a two-year sentence on charges of membership in Hamas and planning a terror attack against Israelis.
In addition to Kharousheh, another five Palestinians were killed during the Israeli operation in Jenin Refugee Camp.
A general strike was observed in many parts of the West Bank on Wednesday to mourn the death of Kharousheh and the five other Palestinians who were killed by the Israeli security forces.
According to some eyewitnesses, the officers who fired the tear gas during the funeral were trying to prevent mourners from carrying Hamas slogans and flags.
When was tear gas used?
The incident took place shortly after Kharousheh’s body was released from Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. The body had been transferred from Jenin to the hospital in Nablus during the night. Kharousheh had fled to the refugee camp in Jenin shortly after the attack at Hawara.
In the past, the PA security forces had confiscated Hamas banners and flags during various events in the West Bank, including funerals, weddings, and parties for Hamas-affiliated prisoners upon their release from Israeli prison.
As a result of the clash between the security officers and the mourners, Kharousheh’s body fell to the ground. Members of the Fatah-affiliated Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Balata Battalion, two armed groups that have a strong presence in Nablus and the nearby refugee camp of Balata, quickly picked up the body and carried it on their shoulders.
The gunmen fired into the air from their M-16 rifles as hundreds of Palestinians chanted slogans praising Hamas and other Palestinian “resistance” groups.
A Palestinian security source said in response to the incident in Nablus that a group of men “seized the body of Kharousheh and “removed it from the ambulance against the wish of his family.” The source said the abductors put the body on the ground, triggering a confrontation with the family. At this stage, the source added, the Palestinian security forces were forced to interfere to restore law and order and prevent a further escalation during the funeral.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions were quick to condemn the PA for “assaulting the funeral of the martyr.”
Hamas denounced the incident as a “new moral downfall” for the PA and a “blatant breach of our national and religious values.”
Hamas spokesperson Husam Badran said the PA security forces’ actions during the funeral were “outside the national framework.” Badran claimed the “assault” on the funeral aims to “undermine the resistance against the occupation.” Hamas, he said, won’t allow the incident to pass without a response.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization, the second largest terror group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, said it “strongly condemns the despicable” behavior of the Palestinian security forces in Nablus.
The PLO’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) condemned the alleged assault on the funeral as “an act of thuggery” and accused the PA of “turning its back on the Palestinian resistance.” The PFLP renewed its call to the PA to stop the security crackdown on Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said masked PA security officers fired several tear gas canisters during the funeral, which led to the fall of the terrorist’s body, which was wrapped in the Hamas flag. It said the officers also attacked a foreign and local journalist who were at the scene.
“PCHR strongly condemns the assault and considers it violent behavior that is not appropriate for funerals,” the center said in a statement.