Tensions flare at funeral in West Bank after clashes

By AFP/Louis Baudoin-Laarman

Shops were closed and gunfire echoed in Jenin on Tuesday during the funeral of a young man killed in clashes between freedom fighters and Palestinian security forces in the West Bank city.

A small procession that began in one of the city's main squares grew as dozens joined, chanting "This is the voice of Jenin" and "Palestinian blood is costly" on their way to the city's refugee camp.

The crowd gathered outside the camp's mosque, waiting for the body of 19-year-old Rahbi Shalabi, killed on Monday in clashes between freedom fighters and Palestinian Authority (PA) forces.

Silence, broken only by sporadic gunfire from deeper in the camp, fell as mourners carried the body from an ambulance into the mosque, its walls lined with posters of slain fighters.

Outside, Noor al-Bitawi, a leader of the Jenin Battalion affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), said tensions between freedom fighters and security forces preceded Shalabi's death.

Negotiations had collapsed after freedom fighters seized two security forces vehicles on Thursday and paraded them through the streets with PIJ flags, he said.

Bitawi added that the PA had said "the issue was not a matter of cars and a matter of a camp, the issue was to end the national jihadist situation in the city of Jenin".

Another Jenin Brigade fighter, who gave his name as "Rocket", blamed security forces for the clashes.

"They raided our group, took two of our best youth, sons of families, and then brought in all this force to threaten us," he said, standing in the camp where tarmac repeatedly stripped during Israeli raids had left muddy streets.

Rocket said they would only surrender their weapons to the PA if it could protect them from Israeli incursions.

But, he added, "every day, we're shocked by the (Palestinian) authorities shooting at our cars, our homes, and our property. They harass us endlessly".

During the clashes, freedom fighters targeted a vehicle belonging to the Palestinian security forces, their spokesman General Anwar Rajab said Monday.

Rajab said an explosion wounded a civilian couple and three security personnel.

While Rajab originally blamed "lawbreakers" for Shalabi's death, Hamas accused the PA.

A video circulating online, which AFP could not verify, appeared to show men in a security forces vehicle shooting at two men on a moped.

Calls for unity

At the funeral, activist Khairi Hanoun led chants as he waved a Palestinian flag and said unity among Palestinians was paramount.

Elsewhere, civil society representatives gathered outside Jenin's hospital damaged in weekend clashes, issued a similar call

Father Feras Khoury, a priest in the nearby city of Al-Zababdeh, whose parish includes Jenin, said: "We are here to call for justice in this city. It has no justice because it has no peace."

Abdallah Jarrar, a Jenin resident and local association board member, said: "We're here to say enough to the internal conflict between the Palestinian security (forces) and the young people in Jenin camp."

"We need our unity to face all the plans what the Israeli government does in the West Bank," he added.

Jenin is a stronghold for armed factions in the West Bank who present themselves as a more effective resistance to Israeli occupation in contrast to the PA, which coordinates security matters with Israeli officials.

As night fell on the northern West Bank city Tuesday, security forces in armoured vehicles were still on alert on main streets.