Mon 24 February 2020:
The images of Mohammed’s lifeless body being carried away by the bulldozer have caused widespread outrage among Palestinians and the family has demanded its swift return for burial.
Mohammed was shot dead on Sunday by the Israeli military, which accused him of planting an explosive device near the Israeli separation fence east of Khan Younis in the besieged Gaza Strip.
A local journalist captured the scenes that followed in a video, widely shared on social media, which showed a group of Palestinian onlookers attempting to retrieve Mohammed’s body when an Israeli military bulldozer approaches.
Gunfire can be heard as the men rush away from the body, which the bulldozer then scoops up after several apparently failed attempts. The body appears to hang from the teeth of the scoop by a piece of clothing as the bulldozer turns and heads towards the fence.
Mohammed’s mother Mirvat says the Israeli military committed a ‘great crime’ [Walid Mahmoud/Al Jazeera]
“My son has no match, he was everything to me,” said Mohammed’s mother, Mirvat, 56. “He was kind-hearted, religious and very moral. I can’t imagine him gone.”
“Isn’t it horrendous enough that they killed my young man? What they did is a great crime against humanity,” said Mirvat.
“All I want is for them to bring my son back … It’s my right to see him for the last time and bid farewell to him and bury him near me to be able to visit him.”
Mohammed’s wife Hiba, 25, who struggled to speak through tears, described her husband as a kind-hearted, hard-working family man.
“Mohammed was a very kind and very remarkable man. I can’t imagine this happening to him,” she told Al Jazeera. “We’ve been married for a year-and-a-half and he’s been very tender-hearted and sweet to me. Our baby is less than a year old, what did he do to deserve growing up without his father?”
Israel killed another Palestinian in gaza . +18
pic.twitter.com/7azxpHMCXf— Palestine Alqadi (@ALQadiPAL) February 23, 2020
Hiba said Mohammed was an engineer who worked with different companies as he sought to make a living to support his family. She said she would not watch the video.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group said that Mohammed was a member of its armed wing. Late on Sunday, it launched more than 20 rockets towards Israel from Gaza in response to his killing.
Overnight, Israel carried out a number of air raids on what it called “terror sites” near Damascus, Syria and Gaza.
The group said that two of its members were killed in Syria.
On Monday, PIJ fired a further volley of rockets and mortars from Gaza. Israel’s military said in a statement that 20 “projectiles” had been fired from Gaza on Monday, 18 of which were intercepted by its air defence systems.
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