Palestinians bury man killed in West Bank army car chase

YATTA, Palestinian Territories: Palestinians from the Masafer Yatta area in the occupied West Bank on Thursday buried a man killed when his car overturned while being chased by Israeli troops, relatives and the military said.
Yosri Abu Qubaita, 28, was killed the day before when his vehicle was chased through the mountains in southern West Bank.
He was laid to rest under the rain in the town of Yatta, his body wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
Relatives wept over his body as a funerary prayer rang out on speakers, an AFP correspondent reported.
“The car overturned and hit a rock,” said Zaid Youssef, who was in another car involved in the incident.
Youssef said the group of cars had initially come under fire from Israeli settlers.
“We fled toward the mountains because of the settlers’ gunfire,” he said.
About half an hour later, emergency crews arrived, he said.
“They started calling us. Then we went back, checked the car, and found him dead,” Youssef added.
The Israeli military said soldiers had pursued several vehicles that drove through a checkpoint without stopping for inspection.
“IDF soldiers initiated a suspect apprehension procedure, which included several warning shots fired into the air,” the military told AFP.
“During their flight, the suspect vehicle lost control, veered off the road, and overturned,” it added.
The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed the incident, reporting three people were also injured from live ammunition. It did not specify who had shot them.
Youssef said the Palestinians in the vehicles were heading to jobs inside Israel and fled because they lacked permits to cross the checkpoint.
“We simply want them to open the roads for us to go to work, to provide for our families,” Youssef said.
Majed Abu Qubaita, Yosri’s father, told AFP the family relied on his son’s work for sustenance.
“He supported his entire family, including me and his ailing mother,” he said.
Masafer Yatta, an arid cluster of communities in the southern West Bank, has in recent years faced mounting pressure, from demolition orders to rising settler violence from nearby hilltop outposts.
Movement is further constrained by an expanding network of Israeli military checkpoints.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Alongside roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
Since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, six Palestinians have been shot dead in settler attacks in the West Bank, according to a tally of data from the Ramallah-based health ministry.