Palestinian Official Dies During Demonstration in West Bank - New York Times

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Ziad Abu Ein, left, protesting against Israeli settlements in the village of Turmus Aya on Wednesday. Credit Majdi Mohammed/Associated Press

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JERUSALEM — A prominent Palestinian official from President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party died on Wednesday after being struck and shoved by an Israeli border police officer and inhaling tear gas during a demonstration in a West Bank village, witnesses said.

The event immediately raised tensions between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and led to calls for a halt in security coordination between the two sides from Hamas and other opponents of the policy, which is unpopular with many Palestinians.

The Israeli military said it was reviewing the circumstances leading up to the death of the official, Ziad Abu Ein, 55, whose body was being transferred from a hospital in Ramallah for an autopsy at a Palestinian forensics institute.

Mr. Abbas described Mr. Abu Ein as the victim of a “barbaric act” and called for three days of mourning.

“We will take the necessary measures after the results of the investigation into the martyrdom of the freedom fighter Abu Ein are known,” Mr. Abbas added, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.

Mr. Abu Ein was a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, the party’s parliament, and was in charge of the portfolio for the struggle against the Israeli West Bank barrier and the settlements, a role equivalent to the rank of a minister in the Palestinian government, according to Palestinian officials.

Dr. Sameer Saliba of the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah said that Mr. Abu Ein had arrived in an ambulance with no signs of life. He could not immediately specify the cause of death.

Mr. Abu Ein’s family said he had diabetes and high blood pressure, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

A video posted online by Russia Today showed Mr. Abu Ein on the ground, leaning on a rock and looking unwell while some Palestinian civilians assisted him and Israeli security forces held back a small crowd of demonstrators holding Palestinian flags in what looked like a peaceful protest.

Mr. Abu Ein and other activists had gone to plant olive trees on land that Palestinians said was threatened with confiscation by Israel near the villages of Al-Mughayer and Turmus Aya in the Ramallah district of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Sara Adweh, a correspondent for the Palestine Public Broadcasting Corporation who saw the events, said in a television broadcast that soldiers had arrived and had begun firing tear gas, and that one soldier had beaten Mr. Abu Ein on the head and chest with his helmet. Other witnesses said that he had been shoved and hit with a rifle butt.

Mr. Abu Ein was interviewed by the Palestinian television service shortly before he collapsed. “This is a criminal army,” he said. “It practices crimes against our land. We did not throw a single stone at them and they attacked us.”

Saeb Erekat, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, said in a statement, “The Israel government bears full responsibility for the killing of Minister Abu Ein and the systematic crimes committed against the Palestinian people.”

“This new assassination will have severe consequences,” Mr. Erekat said. “The Palestinian leadership is currently weighing its response.”

Said Ghazali contributed reporting from Turmus Aya, West Bank.