Israel's Use of 'Crowd Control' Weapons Faces Scrutiny
Israeli forces are using "crowd-control" weapons which can severely injure or kill, Jillian Kestler-D'Amours reports.
AL-RAM, West Bank — Several hundred Palestinian mourners solemnly carried the body of 35-year-old Moayad Ghazawneh — draped in a Palestinian flag, and lying in a wooden, open casket — to the cemetery in the village of Al-Ram, just north of Jerusalem, on Friday afternoon.
Masked members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade fired machine guns and handguns from the rooftop of a local school, and residents stood quietly, while the body was laid to rest. After the funeral, at a separate entrance to Al-Ram, dozens of Israeli soldiers shot tear gas canisters across a normally busy roundabout and four-lane road towards rock-throwing Palestinian youth.
A father of two, Ghazawneh died of heart failure after Israeli soldiers shot tear gas canisters directly into his car during similar clashes that took place in Al-Ram three weeks ago, according to Ma’an News Agency. He had been in intensive care at a Ramallah hospital, before finally succumbing to his injuries on Friday [March 15].
Ghazawneh was the latest of an increasing number of Palestinians killed in recent weeks by the Israeli army during protests and clashes in the West Bank.
