Ramallah: After Dr. Mohammed Al-Osaibi was killed by Israeli police on Saturday at the entrance to Al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestinian towns throughout Israel observed a general strike and day of mourning on Sunday.
Employees from the Arab public education system, Arab local government shops, and other institutions participated in the strike.
Protests were concentrated in the Galilee, the Triangle, and the Negev. Al-Osaibi, a Bedouin from the southern Israeli village of Hura, was shot dead early on Saturday morning in front of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
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Many protesters carried images of Al-Osaibi, waved Palestinian flags, and carried signs denouncing the incident during rallies that were held in the towns of Hura, Tamra, and Araba.
Suhail Diab, the mayor of Tamra in the Galilee, said the attack was meant to convey that the killing was "a criminal operation against a doctor who was killed in cold blood by Israeli police bullets under false pretences."
According to Diab, Israeli police claims that Al-Osaibi attempted to take a police officer's gun and that the area where the incident occurred had no operational security cameras, as well as their assertions that police body cameras had malfunctioned, were untrue.
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He told Arab News: "Israel must admit that it killed him in cold blood. It is incomprehensible that a doctor, who finished his education outside the country and returned to serve his country, was carrying weapons and firing."
Along with other Arab local authority leaders, he also urged European nations not to accept Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two far-right Israeli ministers.
Prior to the start of Al-funeral, Osaibi's Habis Al-Atawneh, head of Hura council in the Negev, spoke of the "extreme anger" felt by residents of the town.
The administration of President Joe Biden has been urged to intervene by the Palestinian community in the US to defend Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Additionally, it demanded that Israeli authorities be pressured to uphold the mosque's sanctity in letters to members of Congress.
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Omar Abdin, a 23-year-old Palestinian activist associated with Hamas in Jerusalem, was detained on Sunday, according to a statement from the Israeli security agency Shin Bet. He was allegedly planning to use a gun to attack an Israeli police bus.
Abdin is alleged by the Shin Bet and police to have been an activist in Birzeit University's Hamas student organisation.