Massive funeral held for Palestinian killed by Israeli forces

Hundreds of Palestinian mourners gathered on Saturday for the funeral of Hamzeh Youssef Zamaareh, 19, in the town of Halhul, north of al-Khalil, also known as Hebron.

Residents responded to a call by authorities to hold a general strike and attend the funeral.

Israeli soldiers killed Zamaareh ten days ago, but refused to return the body to his family until Friday night.

Regime forces killed Zamaareh following an alleged stabbing attack on Israeli troops.

Also on Saturday, 37-year-old Palestinian Nimr al-Jamal, who was killed by Israeli forces five months ago, was laid to rest in the West Bank.

Al-Jamal was killed on September 26 last year after he allegedly carried out a shooting attack in an illegal Israeli settlement that left two guards and a police officer dead.

His body was returned to his family on Friday night in the village of Beit Surik.

His family’s home had been demolished by Israeli forces in November.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in similar circumstances. Rights groups have denounced Tel Aviv's extrajudicial killings in situations where they say alleged assailants could have been detained in a non-lethal manner.

According to the Palestinian human rights group, the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), Israel is currently holding the bodies of 19 Palestinians killed in the past two years, along with 260 bodies of those killed since 1967.

KD