By Qais Abu Samra
RAMALLAH
Thousands of Palestinians took part Tuesday in the funeral of two Palestinians killed earlier in the day by the Israeli army on suspicions that they were involved in the kidnapping and death of three Jewish settlers three months ago.
The Israeli authorities had already handed over the bodies of Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aishathe to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
Mourners chanted against "the crimes of the occupation" and in support of the Palestinian resistance, an Anadolu Agency correspondent reported.
The funeral procession set out from central Hebron's Al-Hussein Mosque to the city's Martyrs Cemetery, he added.
Clashes erupt in Hebron after Israel kills murder suspects
Clashes erupted Tuesday between dozens of Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces in the southern West Bank city of Hebron after Israeli troops killed two Palestinians suspected of kidnapping and killing three Jewish settlers this summer.
Israeli forces used teargas, live ammunition and rubber bullets to disperse stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in Hebron's Jamaa and Ras al-Joura neighborhoods, eyewitnesses said.
Several protesters suffered temporary asphyxiation after inhaling teargas, witnesses added.
Hebron province spokesman Hossam Abdeen told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli army had besieged the Jamaa neighborhood and was barring local residents from entering the area.
The army also destroyed 15 shops in the neighborhood, Abdeen added.
Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had killed two suspects – Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha – after besieging the building in which they had been holed up in central Hebron.
A joint force consisting of army troops and internal security agency (Shin Bet) agents managed to track the pair down and kill them, according to an army statement.
Israeli authorities had accused the two men of having been recruited by a West Bank Palestinian named Hossam Qawasmeh – currently in Israeli custody – to help the latter kidnap and kill three teenage Jewish settlers in June.
The Israeli authorities further claimed that Qawasmeh had confessed to receiving funds from Hamas to recruit Abu Aisha and Qawasmeh for the operation.
The Israeli government has repeatedly accused Hamas of kidnapping the three settlers, who went missing from a Jewish-only settlement in the southern West Bank on June 12 and later turned up dead.
Hamas, for its part, dismisses the claims, describing them as "fabrications."
Since mid-June, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of West Bank Palestinians – including several Hamas lawmakers and former cabinet ministers – against the backdrop of the three settlers' death.
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