Jordanian judge buried in Nablus, Israel expresses "regret" for death

Published March 11th, 2014 - 07:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

A man shot dead by Israeli forces at the Allenby Bridge crossing was laid to rest in Nablus on Tuesday, locals said.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Raed Alaa Addin Zieter, 38, who was shot dead on Monday by Israeli soldiers.

His wife could not attend the funeral as she does not have Palestinian citizenship.

"The Israeli occupation soldiers killed Raed deliberately. If he allegedly provoked a soldier at the checkpoint, that soldier could have fired one shot at his foot, but he in fact fired several shots at his body before another soldier fired more shots. It was a targeted assassination," Zieter's nephew Nafi told reporters during the funeral.

Raed had been planning to visit the occupied West Bank for a few days to arrange some legal and administrative issues related to his family's properties, Nafi said.

"They killed my only son in cold blood," said Zeiter's father Ala, who had traveled from Amman.

"My son was unarmed, he wouldn't even know how to use a weapon," Ala Zeiter said, adding that a witness claimed to have seen soldiers insulting his son and throwing him to the ground before shooting him.

Jordan demanded the Israeli soldiers involved be punished.

"After the investigations, tough measures should be taken against those responsible for the shooting," Jordan's Information Minister and government spokesman Mohammad Momani told state-run television.

"We are talking about an unarmed Jordanian civilian being killed on the other side of the border. All Jordanians are angry and have the right to know what happened," he said.

Speaking after the incident, Israel's army said that "the preliminary conclusion of the investigation indicates that the terrorist attacked the soldier. He charged at the soldiers shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest) with a metal pole, and then attempted to seize the soldier's weapon prompting the soldiers to respond by firing towards his lower extremities."

Israel later expressed "regret" for the death Tuesday, according to Reuters reports.

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