RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — An 80-year-old Palestinian was found dead in a
village in the occupied
West Bank on Wednesday, with the mayor reporting his
body was still handcuffed after being arrested by Israeli occupation forces.
اضافة اعلان
Around 30 to 40 Israeli troops took part in the
pre-dawn operation in the village of Jiljiliya, Mayor Fuad Moutee told AFP.
Omar Abdulmajeed Asad and other family members were
returning from visiting relatives when they were stopped by the soldiers,
Moutee said.
“They stopped the cars in the village center and
arrested the passengers inside and handcuffed them,” he said.
After the troops withdrew, villagers found Asad’s
body in a building under construction.
In a brief statement, the
Palestinian health ministry confirmed the mayor’s version of events, adding Asad had died of a
“heart attack”.
Israeli forces however said that while a man had
been “apprehended” during operations “to thwart terrorist activity” overnight
in the area of Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, he had been released the same
night.
It said it had launched an investigation into the
matter.
“An initial inquiry by the commanders at the scene
indicated that during the inspection process a Palestinian was apprehended
after resisting a check, and he was released later that night,” Israeli forces
said in a statement.
A review of the incident will take place, the
findings of which will be sent to the Israelis’ military legal corps, the
statement added.
A spokesperson
for the Israeli occupation forces said the incident would be investigated “in a
thorough and professional manner”, and he insisted that “the lives of every
Israeli and Palestinian are important”.
The man’s death comes after clashes between troops
and students on Tuesday at Birzeit University, near Ramallah, as well as an
attempted car ramming attack in which an Israeli soldier was injured near an
illegal Jewish settlement.
Clashes break out frequently in Palestinian
population centers in the West Bank when Israeli troops mount incursions to
carry out arrests.
Israel has occupied the territory since the 1967
Arab-Israeli war.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, some 475,000
Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank regarded as illegal under
international law, alongside more than 2.9 million Palestinians.
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