Thousands attend funeral of Palestinian-American teen
Youths hurl rocks at troops as mourners carry body of 14-year-old Orwa Hammad in Ramallah
Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of a Palestinian boy with American citizenship who was killed by Israel Defense Force soldiers.
The funeral for Orwa Hammad, 14, took place Sunday afternoon in the West Bank village of Silwad, near Ramallah.
The funeral was delayed until Sunday so that Hammad’s father, who lives in the United States, and his mother, who was in Jordan, could attend, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.
A large crowd carried the boy’s body, wrapped in a black and white headscarf and green flag, on a stretcher, in the village of Silwad, near Ramallah.
Elsewhere in town, groups of youths hurled rocks at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas.
Hammad, who was born in New Orleans and came to the West Bank with his family when he was 6, was the second Palestinian teen to die in clashes with Israeli troops in the past week.
The IDF told reporters that the teen was shot as he was preparing to throw a firebomb at cars driving on Highway 60. The soldiers opened fire “in order to neutralize the threat to the lives of civilians driving on the highway,” the IDF Spokesman’s Department said.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement released on Friday that officials from the US Consulate General in Jerusalem have been in contact with the family and were providing “all appropriate consular assistance.”
“We call for a speedy and transparent investigation and will remain closely engaged with the local authorities, who have the lead on this investigation,” Psaki said. “We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” the statement concluded.