Ramallah [Palestine], August 6:Mourners on Saturday attended the funeral of a Palestinian killed by Zionist settlers in the occupied West Bank, after the UN warned of a dramatic spike in such cases. The Palestinian health ministry in a statement late Friday announced the death of Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, saying he was "shot dead by settlers in the village of Burqa", east of Ramallah. At the funeral procession, Maatan was wrapped in a black and white keffiyeh head covering and Palestinian flag.
Mourners carried his body through the village streets before his burial, said an AFP journalist at the scene. Earlier on Friday, soldiers had shot dead another young Palestinian. In a statement, the Palestinian health ministry said 18-year-old Mahmoud Abu Saan was "killed this morning by live bullets from the occupation in Tulkarm". The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Abu Saan was "shot in the head by the occupation soldiers at zero distance".
At Abu Saan's funeral later Friday, his head was shrouded in the Palestinian flag as his body was paraded through the town's streets ahead of the burial, an AFP photographer said. Since early last year, the West Bank has seen violence by Zionist settlers against Palestinian communities and regular raids by Zionist forces. The Zionist entity has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Zionists who live in settlements considered illegal under international law. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA on Friday said it had recorded 591 settler-related "incidents" in the West Bank in the first six months of 2023 resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both. "That's an average of 99 incidents every month, and a 39-percent-increase compared with the monthly average of the whole of 2022, which is 71," spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva. - AFP
Source: Kuwait Times
