International Solidarity Movement Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.
27th October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Silwad, Occupied Palestine
Yesterday a funeral was held for 14-year-old Orwa Abd al-Hadi Hammad, shot dead by the Israeli military on Friday, in the small village of Silwad close to Ramallah.
Orwa was shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday, during a demonstration at the edge of the small village of Silwad. The demonstration was about the Israeli military occupying the edge of the village to protect a road used by Zionist settlers from the the illegal settlement of Ofra.
Orwa was a US citizen. His funeral was delayed until Sunday so his father would be able to travel from the United States to attend the funeral. The funeral procession consisted of thousands of men, waving flags and chanting through the narrow streets of Silwad, while carrying Orwa’s body on a stretcher. In the procession were parents of other children shot by the Israeli military. All shops in the town were closed and posters honoring the victim were posted everywhere.
The procession moved from the mosque to the funeral sight in the center of the village. At the end of the somber service the relatives’ grief turned into frustration towards the Israeli occupation and the loss of the young boy.
Later, young men gathered at the spot where Orwa was killed, near where the Israeli military base is placed on the edge of the village. As 50 – 100 mourners, among them relatives of the deceased, residents of the village and internationals, burned tires and chanted, the Israeli military began to fire rubber-coated steel bullets and many tear gas canisters.
After more than an hour the Israeli military withdrew, just before entering the center of the village. Four ambulances left the scene carrying people wounded by the rubber-coated steel bullets and overcome by tear gas inhalation.
