Outrage in Palestine over PA's 'attack' on funeral in Nablus

The Palestinian Islamist faction Hamas condemned on Thursday the Palestinian Authority's security forces' violent dispersion of a funeral in Nablus on Wednesday.

Abdel Fatah Khrousheh, 49 years old, was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin on Tuesday, along with five other Palestinians. The Israeli army claims Khrousheh was the shooter who killed two Israeli settlers in Hawara last week.

Palestinian security forces disrupted Khrousheh's funeral in Nablus on Wednesday, throwing stun grenades and causing the coffin to fall to the ground during the procession.

"يا حيف.." قوات أمن السلطة تعتدي على مسيرة تشييع الشهيد عبد الفتاح خروشة في نابلس وتسقط جثمانه على الأرض pic.twitter.com/HVicq5ZxoE

— كويتيون ضد التطبيع‏ 𓂆 (@Palestinekw) March 8, 2023

In its statement, Hamas described the PA security forces' disruption as "a cowardly action, a rejected terrorisation policy and a transgression of national ethics."

Hamas also called on the PA to "halt these violations and respect the sanctity of the martyr's blood."

On Wednesday, the PA's governor of Nablus said in a statement that the PA's security forces intervened after a group of Palestinians pulled Khrousheh's body out of the ambulance that transported it, while the PA had prepared an official funeral for him.

Meanwhile, several Palestinian factions condemned the PA security forces' actions at Khrusheh's funeral.

For its part, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) condemned the PA, calling the act by its security forces "a shameful behaviour deviating from Palestinian national and patriotic traditions".

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also condemned the PA's act, warning the PA from "continuing the path of the Aqaba agreements, aiming to push the Palestinian Authority to confront the resistance and the popular movement".

Late on Wednesday, Palestinians marched in Jenin and Bethlehem's Dheisheh refugee camp protesting the PA's assault on Khrousheh's funeral. Protesters also chanted slogans condemning the PA's security coordination with Israel and cheering the resistance.

Khrousheh was a father of five from a refugee family that has lived in the Asker refugee camp in Nablus since its expulsion by Israel from the city of Lod in 1948. He had spent six years in Israeli jails over his political activism, and his older brother was killed by Israeli forces during the first Intifada.

Khrousheh was one of six Palestinians killed in Jenin on Tuesday, in what local residents described as "a new massacre".

Since the beginning of the year, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 74 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank alone, according to the Palestinian health ministry.