HEBRON, West Bank — Chanting Jewish settlers marched through the narrow, winding streets of ancient Hebron on Sunday to bury a 10-month-old girl killed in a shooting attack, while Palestinian mourners laid to rest an 11-year-old boy shot by Israeli soldiers during clashes.
As both sides buried young victims of the conflict, Israel seized several members of Yasser Arafat's Force 17 bodyguard unit, which has been accused of attacks on Israeli civilians. Palestinian leaders charged that Israel crossed into their autonomous territory to make the arrests, a violation of interim peace accords.
Outside the West Bank city of Ramallah, 11-year-old Mohammed Tamini was buried in a quiet family ceremony in the village of Deir Nitham, in contrast to the fiery funeral marches Saturday for seven Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
The boy was shot in the back of the head during a clash with Israeli soldiers on March 15 and died Sunday. The Israelis said he was involved in the violence, but villagers said he was just near a group of boys throwing stones. Dozens of Palestinian teenagers and some younger children have been killed in six months of violence.
About 3,000 Jewish settlers and their supporters gathered outside a contested holy site in the tense, divided West Bank city of Hebron for a funeral procession for Shalhevet Pass, a 10-month-old girl shot in the head last Monday. Israel has said the shooter was a sniper.
The settlers wept and chanted psalms outside the stone walls at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the traditional burial site of the biblical Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and three of their wives. The site is holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians.
Rabbi Dov Lior climbed onto a makeshift stage in front of the tomb and demanded that the government "avenge her blood . . . which has been shed by dark villains."