Thousands join funeral of Palestinian worker shot dead by Israelis

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) Thousands of mourners on Monday followed the funeral procession of Antar al-Aqraa from the northern West Bank village of Qabalan near Nablus who was shot dead Saturday by a volunteer in the Israeli border guard police.Al-Aqraa was shot dead near a cemetery in Petah Tikva, and his body was taken to Israel’s Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. The Israelis delivered the body to the Palestinian side earlier Monday.“When he left home in the morning he took with him wedding invitation cards he wanted to hand to his fellow workers and to his Israeli bosses,” Antar’s father Shibli al-Aqraa told Ma’an. He highlighted that the Israeli claims that Antar tried to stab an Israeli officer were “completely false.”“Why would a young man scheduled to be wedded in two weeks, and carrying invitations, attempt to attack an Israeli soldier?” the bereaved father wondered. “These are pure lies and fabrications.”The bereaved mother wept as she showed reporters the clothes her son had planned to wear on his wedding day. /149