More than 70 women in the village where Awdah Hathaleen was killed on Monday have launched a hunger strike, calling for Israeli police to return his body and release residents arrested in the wake of his murder.
Their protest comes as they say Israeli forces have raided family homes in the village each night since the killing, arresting their husbands and brothers and beating other family members.
“A woman would be not properly dressed, lying in bed, and they would come in and open the door and say, ‘We want your husband, we want your brother’,” Ikhlas Hazalin, Hathaleen’s sister-in-law, told Middle East Eye on Thursday.
“Whenever they didn’t find whom they were looking for, other family members would be beaten – his brother, or one of his family members – until the wanted person was brought in.”
Hazalin added: “I’ve never seen such brutality.”
Awdah Hathaleen was a 31-year-old English teacher and peaceful anti-settlement activist. He was allegedly shot by an Israeli settler, previously sanctioned by the US, in a confrontation captured on video.
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