Palestinians participating in the funeral of Sari Abu Ghurab in Qabatiya, Jenin. WAFA photo by Thayer Abu Bakr. 

HEBRON, December 17, 2016 (WAFA) – Hundreds of people participated Saturday in six funeral processions for Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in recent months but their corpses were held for a long time as a punishment to their families.

Four of the funerals were held in the Hebron district, in the south of the West Bank, a fifth in the town of Qabatiya in the Jenin area in the north of the West Bank and the sixth in Assira, near Nablus.

A seventh funeral was held Friday evening in the village of Qaffin, in the Tulkarm district, for Ansar Hirsheh, who was shot dead on June 2 at a military checkpoint outside Tulkarm after she allegedly attempted to stab soldiers.

In Assirah, north of Nablus, residents buried Rahiq Beirawi, 20, whose corpse has been held since October 19 after she was shot dead at Za‘atara checkpoint for allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack.

In Qabatiya, residents buried Sari Abu Ghurab, who was shot dead by Israeli forces on August 24.

In the Hebron area, people participated in funerals for Firas Khdour and Sara Tarayreh in the town of Bani Naim, Muhammad Sarahin in Beit Ula and Khalid Bahr in Beit Ummar.

Khdour was shot dead near Kiryat Arba settlement on September 9 after he allegedly attempted to ram his car into Israeli settlers. His finance, Raghd Khdour, was with him in the car. She was shot and seriously wounded, but survived and later released from detention.

Tarayreh, whose corpse was first sent by mistake to Jenin in the north of the West Bank and handed over to a family that was expecting to receive corpse of its son, was returned to Bani Naim where she was buried on Saturday.

Tarayreh, 27, was pregnant when she was shot and killed near the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron on July 1 after she was suspected to attempting to stab soldiers.

Sarahin, 30, was shot and fatally injured when soldiers raided his family home on September 15. He fought with the soldiers who shot him and critically wounded him. He later died in hospital of his wounds.

Bahr, 15, was shot dead on October 20 after he allegedly threw stones at soldiers.

Israel is supposed to turn over corpses of three others in the coming days out of 23 corpses of Palestinians its forces had shot and killed and who are being held for months.

A report by the Israeli daily Haaretz last week said soldiers usually tamper with evidence at scenes were an alleged attack took place. It quoted prosecutors as saying “Israeli soldiers often contaminate evidence after shooting (alleged) Palestinian assailants.”

It said: “It is often impossible to investigate cases where soldiers shoot Palestinians, because the soldiers disturb the evidence at alleged terror attack scene, senior prosecutors and police officers warned the Israeli Defense Forces.”

M.K.