Dead Palestinian sets off firestorm around Israel

SAEER, West Bank A Palestinian man who died under disputed circumstances in Israeli custody was given a hero's funeral Monday, with thousands thronging his gravesite and Palestinian police firing a 21-gun salute.

Palestinian officials, citing an autopsy, said Arafat Jaradat was tortured during Israeli interrogation. Israeli officials said more tests are needed to determine the cause of death, and Israel's public security minister said he would allow an international expert to review the autopsy results.

The weekend death of the 30-year-old gas station attendant and father of two comes amid rising West Bank tensions that have prompted talk in Israel about the possibility of a new Palestinian uprising.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Monday he was consulting with security officials, while U.N. envoy Robert Serry warned that "mounting tensions present a real risk of destabilization."

In recent days, there have been frequent Palestinian protests in support of some 4,600 Palestinians held by Israel, particularly four inmates who've staged extended hunger strikes.

The fate of the prisoners is sensitive in Palestinian society, where virtually every family has had a member imprisoned by Israel. Detainees are held on a range of charges, from stone-throwing to deadly attacks, and are seen as heroes resisting occupation. Israelis tend to view them as terrorists.

Palestinian and Israeli officials traded accusations Monday, each saying the other was trying to exploit the latest unrest for political gains.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel is trying to provoke the Palestinians with what he said are increasingly lethal methods by Israeli security forces clamping down on Palestinian protests.

"However they try to drag us to that place, we won't be dragged," said Abbas. "We won't be dragged, but they (Israelis) have to bear the responsibility."

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev alleged that Abbas' self-rule government in the West Bank is inciting violence against Israel. Palestinian officials have called for more solidarity rallies for the prisoners.

The harsher tones on both sides came less than a month before the expected visit of President Barack Obama to Israel and the West Bank.

A West Bank flare-up in the coming weeks would underscore the Palestinian argument that the U.S. needs to step up as mediator. The Palestinians believe that without U.S. pressure on Israel, there will be no progress in peace efforts.

Abbas, an outspoken critic of violence, has said he would not allow an armed uprising on his watch.

But tensions have been rising in recent days with a number of protests in solidarity with prisoners held by Israel, and then, the death of Jaradat over the weekend. Several dozen Palestinian stone-throwers clashes with Israeli troops near two Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank on Monday.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas leader called on resistance fighters to kidnap Israeli soldiers in protest of Jaradat's death, according to Iran's official Fars News Agency.

"A new Palestinian Intifada is about to break out in support of prisoners," Salah al-Bardawil said, according to Fars.

At Monday's funeral, thousands marched behind Jaradat's body, draped in a Palestinian flag, as the procession snaked through his home town of Saeer, just north of the West Bank city of Hebron.

Palestinian police maintained order and seven officers fired a 21-gun salute near the gravesite.

Abbas Zaki, a senior member of Abbas' Fatah movement, called Jaradat's death an Israeli crime.

"I am telling Fatah members that our enemy only understands the language of force," he told the crowd in what appeared to be a call to violence. He did not elaborate.

Jaradat was arrested on Feb. 18 on suspicion that he had thrown stones at Israelis. He died Saturday at Israel's Megiddo prison, after several days of interrogation by the Shin Bet security service.

Israel's forensics institute performed an autopsy Sunday, in the presence of a physician from the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, Issa Karake, said after being briefed by the Palestinian doctor that Jaradat was tortured. He said Jaradat was bruised over his body and suffered two broken ribs.

Jaradat's brother, Mohammed, said he saw the body Sunday and believed his brother was severely beaten.

Israel's Health Ministry said the autopsy did not conclusively determine the cause of death, but that the bruising and broken ribs were likely the result of attempts to revive the detainee. It said more testing was needed.

Amos Gilad, an Israeli defense official, alleged that Palestinian officials were jumping to conclusions. "It's intended to incite," Gilad told Israel Army Radio on Monday. "There is a clear political purpose to stir things up."

The Shin Bet initially said Jaradat apparently died of a heart attack, though the Palestinian physician attending the autopsy was quoted as saying he did not find any evidence of that.

An agency official has denied Jaradat was beaten.

Detainees have filed some 700 complaints about mistreatment by Shin Bet agents in the past decade, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.

Reports of physical mistreatment have dropped sharply in recent years, but have not disappeared, said B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli.

Serry, the U.N. envoy, said Israel must respect its obligations towards all Palestinians in custody, adding that the U.N. is concerned about the deteriorating health of Palestinian detainees on hunger strike.