Nasser Abd Al Qader, a Palestinian worker who has been detained by the
Israeli authorities for working in Israel without permission, was not
allowed to attend the funeral of his daughter on Wednesday.
Abd Al Qader's daughter Du'a' was killed by an Israeli sharpshooter while playing near the illegal Israeli wall in the eastern side of Tulkarem city in the northern part of the West Bank on Tuesday evening. Abd Al Qader was playing with her friends on a farm that is overlooked by an Israeli watchtower located on the illegal wall surrounding the city. A sharpshooter from that watchtower opened fire at the girls, critically wounding Abd Al Qader and injuring her ten year old friend Rasah Shalabi, eyewitnesses reported.
Eyewitnesses added that when Palestinian medical teams arrived at the scene they were stopped by Israeli soldiers who surrounded and sealed off the scene and were forced to return to the city after the Israeli soldiers threatened to shoot them if they came any closer the scene. Meanwhile, the army brought an Israeli ambulance and then moved the two girls to an Israeli hospital where Abd Al Qader died as a result of her gunshot wounds.
Rami Otman, the attorney of the father, requested that the Israeli court allow Abd Al Qader to attend the funeral, but by the time the court submitted its verdict, the funeral had already started. The court clamed that it needed time to "hear the state's position on the matter", as reported by the Israeli online daily, Haartz, but recommended that Abd Al Qader could attend his daughter's funeral, under the custody of the Army without realizing that the funeral was being held in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem. Otman added that he will submit another request on Thursday for his client to be released for the extent of the mourning period.
