JERICHO, West Bank: A 38-year-old Gazan, the only known fatality in Iran’s missile attack against the Zionist entity, was buried on Wednesday. Sameh Khadr Hassan Al-Asali had been staying in a Palestinian security forces compound in the occupied West Bank when he was killed by falling missile debris during Tuesday’s attack, which the entity said was largely thwarted by its air defense systems. Security forces personnel carried the body draped in the red, green, white and black Palestinian flag. The crowd of about 200 mourners was made up of fellow Gazans staying in Jericho and local people.
A large section of the rocket lay on the ground where it fell outside the compound. Around 700 workers from Gaza have been staying in Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, since the start of the war in Gaza almost a year ago. Unlike citizens of the Zionist entity, who went into bomb shelters after warning sirens sounded across the country, many Palestinians in the West Bank went out to watch the missiles and observe the explosions as they were intercepted by the Zionist air defense.
Video footage taken from a CCTV camera showed a large metal tube falling out of the sky and landing on a man walking across a street, apparently killing him instantly. Reuters was able to confirm the location from the road layout, buildings, utility poles and markings on the ground which matched satellite imagery of the area. The date was verified by a timecode.
In Jerusalem’s Palestinian quarter of Silwan, people did not go to shelters because they don’t have any. They also went out into the streets or onto roofs to see what was happening. One resident told AFP of the reaction in Silwan, which is located in the east of Jerusalem and was seized by the Zionist entity in the 1967 war and later annexed. "As soon as the Palestinians heard the first sirens, there were whistles and applause, and there were cries of ‘Allahu Akbar!’ (God is Greatest),” said one resident of the moment the streaks of fire appeared in the night sky. — Agencies