Israel returns body of Palestinian teen killed in November

FEB. 2, 2017 1:56 P.M. (UPDATED: FEB. 2, 2017 6:54 P.M.)

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RAMALLAH (Maan) -- Israeli authorities released on Wednesday evening the

body of a Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli forces after holding it for more
than two months, allowing Palestinian officials to carry out an autopsy.
Muhammad Zeidan, 16, was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard on Nov.
25 after allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack near the Shufat
checkpoint in the Jerusalem district of the occupied West Bank.
The chief prosecutor in Ramallah, Alaa al-Tamimi, said that forensic experts had
begun an autopsy to uncover the circumstances surrounding Zeidans death.
Al-Tamimi said that Zeidan was shot in the stomach and deliberately left
bleeding on the ground without medical treatment until he died.
He added that Zeidans body would be released to his family for burial upon the
completion of all legal procedures.
Zeidan was one of 112 Palestinians to have died in 2016 as part of Israeli-
Palestinian violence. Fifteen Israelis died during the same time period.
Rights groups have repeatedly denounced what they have termed Israeli forces'
"shoot-to-kill" policy against Palestinians who did not constitute a threat at the
time of their death or who could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner.
Amid the increase in violence since October 2015, Israeli
authorities dramatically escalated a policy of withholding Palestinian
bodies killed by Israeli forces, claiming that funerals of Palestinians had
provided grounds for incitement against the Israeli state.
However, the majority of bodies of Palestinians slain since then have since been
returned to their families, despite the Israeli security cabinet deciding in
January that bodies of Palestinians affiliated with the Hamas movement who
were killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis would be withheld
indefinitely.
A joint statement released by Addameer and Israeli minority rights group
Adalah in March condemned Israels practice of withholding bodies as "a severe
violation of international humanitarian law as well as international human rights
law, including violations of the right to dignity, freedom of religion, and the right
to practice culture."
PLO official Saeb Erekat has also urged the international community to pressure
Israel to release Palestinian bodies held by Israeli, saying: "Israel's collective
punishments are now being carried out against the living and the dead."