Jihad Mohammad Shami, 24, Udai Othman Shami, 22, and Mohammad Raed Dabbeek, 18, were laid to rest in their Nablus hometown today in a funeral attended by hundreds of mourners, 55 days after they were shot dead by Israeli occupation forces. Israeli soldiers shot dead the three young men on March 12 in an ambush when they were in a car near a military checkpoint southwest of northern West Bank city and have been holding their bodies since then. While more than 130 other bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers remain in Israeli custody, some for years, waiting to be buried by their families, the army last night, in a step that has rarely been done, released the bodies of the three young men and handed them over to the Palestinians. The bodies were taken to a hospital in Nablus where they were kept in the morgue before they were given proper funeral and buried today by their families, friends, and hundreds of Nablus residents.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency (WAFA)