Palestinians across Arab cities in Israel launched a full-day’s strike yesterday to protest against Israel’s killing of Mohammad Al-Osaibi, a Palestinian doctor who was fatally shot by Israeli forces.
Al-Osaibi, a 26-year-old doctor from Houra, a Bedouin Arab village in southern Israel, was killed by Israeli police forces at an entrance to Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city early Saturday.
The family said Al-Osaibi was shot when he intervened to help a Palestinian girl.
The strike followed a call on Saturday by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel which includes all municipalities to shut down public educational facilities and shops.
The committee chairman, former MK Mohammad Barakeh, told Army Radio yesterday: “This isn’t a case of conflicting versions – there is a regime body that murdered a citizen in cold blood. The burden of proof is on the police.”
Barakeh added that the strike was being held in almost all Arab localities and would feature no violence unless “police make provocations,” reported the Times of Israel.
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Moreover, Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian-Israeli member of the Knesset, visited the Al-Osaibifamily’s mourning tent in the Bedouin town of Hura, based in the Negev (Naqab), after the strike was announced.
He said, “Mohammad Al-Osaibi is a medical school graduate who came to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray. He had dreams, they were shattered by the bullets of trigger-happy policemen who think the life of an Arab Palestinian is cheap.”
Israeli soldiers claim that he attempted to snatch an officer’s gun after he was stopped for questioning, prompting forces to shoot. However, Al-Osaibi’s family denied the police version of events.
“The police are lying,” the family said in a statement. “They fired more than 20 bullets at him when he had nothing in his possession.”
Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in recent months amid repeated Israeli raids into Palestinian towns.
Over 90 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the year, according to Palestinian figures. Fourteen Israelis have also been killed during the same period.
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Montather Rassoul