AL-QUDS (AFP/Al Jazeera) –More than 70 Palestinians were wounded in an overnight assault by Zionist troops at a funeral in Al-Quds, Palestinian medics said Tuesday.
The Zionist troops lobbed tear gas canisters and shot rubber-coated bullets at the funeral procession of Walid al-Sharif who had succumbed to injuries sustained at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last month.
Hundreds of mourners joined the funeral procession on Monday for al-Sharif, who was pronounced dead on Saturday.
Al-Sharif suffered a serious head injury on April 22 after Zionist troops fired rubber-coated bullets at Palestinians at Al-Quds’ most sensitive holy site.
Palestinian witnesses and al-Sharif’s family say he was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet, while Zionist regime authorities have suggested he died from injuries sustained when he fell on the ground. Israeli hospital officials declined to give a precise cause of death.
Amateur video of the attack shows a large group of Palestinians running away from the direction of heavy Israeli fire. Immediately after one shot, al-Sharif is seen falling on his face and lying motionless on the ground. The occupying regime’s troops then took him away.
After falling into a coma, al-Sharif died in hospital. His body was taken by regime authorities after his death, until it was released to his family on Monday.
Mourners at the funeral, some of whom were carrying Palestinian flags, took al-Sharif’s body for prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque before proceeding to a cemetery outside of Al-Quds’ Old City.
The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said 71 Palestinians were wounded from rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and beatings after Zionist troops attacked the funeral.
“Israeli forces fired rubber-coated bullets at an ambulance carrying the coffin of the dead Palestinian youth,” a witness said.
The developments come days after Zionist troops martyred Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh which drew heavy reactions from the international community.
New footage has revealed Zionist troops’ brutality and violence at the funeral of slain journalist Abu Akleh as they stormed a hospital prior to the procession, hitting and shoving people inside, including patients, and firing from the grounds of the medical facility.
The video clips, obtained from security cameras inside Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Al-Quds, were presented during a press conference by local Vatican-affiliated Christian leaders on Monday.
The footage showed dozens of Zionist troops with helmets, protective vests and batons rushing into the hospital before the funeral procession began.
They were seen firing on the outside grounds of the hospital, while one clip showed officers shoving a man on crutches to the ground as they ran through the hospital.
In another video, an officer is seen telling the crowd that the procession would not commence until the crowd stopped “nationalistic” and Palestinian chants.
Abu Akleh, a veteran of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network’s Arabic service, was shot in the head on Wednesday, when she was reporting on a Zionist raid against Palestinians living in the Jenin refugee camp.