Thousands attend Hamas bomb-maker funeral, vow to commit suicide attacks

NABLUS, WEST BANK, NOV 24: Some 10,000 Palestinians, including 10 militants strapped with dummy explosives thronged the streets of the Wes...

NABLUS, WEST BANK, NOV 24: Some 10,000 Palestinians, including 10 militants strapped with dummy explosives thronged the streets of the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday in a funeral procession for a Hamas bomb-maker who died in a mysterious explosion on Thursday.

Ibrahim Beni Ouda, 34, died on Thursday when a bomb exploded in his car in Nablus, in an incident Hamas and Palestinian officials blamed on Israel. Ten masked men dressed head to toe in white carried Ouda8217;s body through the streets, their bodies strapped with dummy explosives in a sign that they were prepared to carry out suicide attacks against Israel to avenge his death. In Islam, the dead are traditionally buried in white shrouds.

quot;Revenge, Revenge, Oh Ezzedin al-Qassam take revenge,quot; shouted the demonstrators, referring to the armed wing of Hamas, of which Ouda was a leader. Nablus governor Mahmoud Al-Aloul had said a preliminary Palestinian investigation indicated that Israel had planted the bomb in Ouda8217;s car in order to assassinate him. The Israeli Army has denied involvement.

Officials from Hamas, which is violently opposed to Israel, said Ouda was released from a Nablus jail on Wednesday along with seven other Hamas activists for a temporary holiday because prison officials feared the prison would be bombed by Israel. Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, swore to avenge the death. quot;The blood of our heroic martyr and that of all the martyrs of al-Aqsa will be a fire that will burn the oppressors,quot; Hamas said in a statement issued in Gaza City. Hamas rallies were also due to be held in the Gaza Strip and West Bank on Friday, which the movement has declared a standing quot;day of rage.quot;

The Palestinian newspaper al-Quds reported that the al-Qassam Brigades said it was behind the rush-hour blast near a bus in the Israeli town of Hadera on Monday that left two Israelis dead and more than 50 wounded. A previously unknown group calling itself the Islamic Revolution to Liberate Palestine, as well as the Group of National Islamic Resistance claimed responsibility. Ezzedin al-Qassam warned on Wednesday, in its first statement in months, that Israel quot;would open the gate of hellquot; if it tried to kill any Palestinian Islamic or nationalist leader. Hamas8217;s armed wing has been responsible for numerous anti-Israeli attacks, including a string of suicide bus bombings, since the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords in 1993.