Light-rail terrorist buried amid clashes outside East Jerusalem home

The Palestinian man who killed two in a terrorist attack on Wednesday was buried by his family in East Jerusalem Sunday night amid protests outside their home against a police ban on mass attendance of the funeral.

Abdelrahman al-Shaludi, the man who rammed his car into a packed Jerusalem Light Rail station last week, was given a quick burial in the Muslim cemetery next to the Old City attended by a small number of family members, the NRG news site reported. According to Israel Radio, Israel Police deployed a significant number of officers to the area to secure the ceremony.

In the attack Shaludi killed three-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun and Karen Yemima Muscara, an Ecuadorian citizen in her 20s who had come to Israel to convert to Judaism, and injured seven others. Muscara was also laid to rest on Sunday.

Hundreds of East Jerusalemites gathered outside the Shaludi home in Silwan to take part in the funeral, despite the fact that his family conceded to police restrictions on attendance.

Police had feared his funeral would add to already inflamed tensions in the capital, and a court ordered that only 20 people — whose names had been approved — be allowed to attend his funeral in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, and the funeral would have to be at night.

According to Arabic reports cited by NRG, nine people were injured in clashes with the police in Silwan after officers attempted to disperse the gathering.

His family said Sunday evening they would accept his body, AFP reported.

Shaludi’s family had earlier threatened they would not receive the body if strict limits on the number of mourners at the funeral remained in place.

“The deceased deserves a great and dignified funeral,” family spokesman Abad Shaludi told the Israeli media outlet Ynet. “We will not agree to accept the body with the [funeral] conditions set by the police. If they leave the conditions in place, then it’s better to leave the body with them.”

Jawad Siyyam, an activist from Silwan, where the Shaludis reside, alleged that Israel had threatened the family they would bury him on their own if they did not accept the conditions.

His family rejected those terms, but eventually the two sides agreed 70 people could attend, according to Siyyam.

A police spokeswoman confirmed the body would be handed over, but denied the quota had grown to 70 participants.

Shaludi — who, according to Israel, was a Hamas activist from Silwan — was originally set to be buried in a Muslim cemetery near the Old City’s Lions’ Gate at 10 p.m. Saturday after a court authorized a service to be attended by a maximum of 80 people, for fear the event could turn into a violent protest.

However, police postponed the burial and rescheduled it for a time window between 11 p.m. and midnight with only 20 mourners, whose names would have to be submitted to police in advance, allowed to attend.

Tensions are already running high in Jerusalem, where police and officials have vowed to crack down on several days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces.

In the wake of the terror attack Wednesday night, riots were reported in several East Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Sunday saw scattered incidents of rocks and Molotov cocktails being thrown at Israelis in the capital and West Bank.

Police deployed “at least 400-500” extra police units “to prevent and respond to any incident,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Earlier in the evening, demonstrators marching to Shaludi’s home threw rocks at policemen, who responded with crowd-dispersing methods, according to the Israel Police.

Police arrested several suspects.

The protests came as a second victim of the Wednesday terror attack succumbed to her wounds, raising the death toll to two.

Also Sunday evening, Palestinians threw four Molotov cocktails at an Israeli bus traveling near the city of Halhul, north of Hebron. No injuries were reported.

Tensions have been high since June, when three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank. Jewish extremists retaliated by kidnapping and killing a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem, sparking riots. The kidnappings set off a series of events that led to the 50-day Gaza war.

Times of Israel staff and news agencies contributed to this report.