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Thousands at funeral of boy shot in West Bank protest

NILIN, ISRAEL Jul 30 2008 14:33

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Thousands took part on Wednesday in a funeral march in the occupied West Bank for a 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli forces during a protest against Israel's separation barrier.

"Oh martyr, rest in peace, we shall continue the struggle," the crowd of about 3 000 people chanted during the march from the city of Ramallah to the nearby village of Nilin where Ahmed Hammad Mussa was killed on Tuesday.

A dozen Israeli army vehicles were stationed at the entrance of the village, but there were no immediate incidents.

"What occurred was truly a crime against a child," said Rafik Husseini, an aide to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who was at funeral.

"The Israeli army, with its actions in Nilin and the rest of the West Bank is trying to destroy any chance of peace and of a solution with two states living side-by-side," he said.

The boy was hit by a live bullet fired by Israeli soldiers during a demonstration in Nilin, according to organisers of the protest.

According to Khawaja, soldiers fired live rounds towards a group of protestors who had ran into Nilin after the army dispersed demonstrators outside the flashpoint village using rubber-coated bullets.

"A police investigation is under way into the unfortunate incident that led to the death of a 12-year-old child," said police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld.

"All the members of the unit who were present at the protest were questioned immediately after the incident," he said.

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Villagers and activists regularly protest at Nilin in a bid to prevent the construction of a stretch of the projected 723km of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire which Israel says are essential to halt attacks by West Bank militants but which Palestinians say aims at grabbing their land and undermining the viability of their promised state.

To date Israel has built 57% of the projected barrier, most of it in the West Bank.

Earlier this month, demonstrators in Nilin and other locations marked four years since the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding resolution calling for parts of the barrier inside the West Bank to be torn down and for a halt to construction there.

Israel has ignored the ruling, as well as a similar order by its own High Court that nullified three sections of the wall, including one that runs near Bilin, a town near Nilin that has held weekly protests for more than two years - AFP

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Thousands at funeral of boy shot in West Bank protest

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