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Photo:
Funeral of Tiran Fero, 18. Published by IMEMC News

Tiran Ferro Credit: Courtesy Published by Haaretz
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by IMEMC News
Nov 24, 2022

A group of Palestinian resistance fighters seized the body of an Israeli Druze man who had died in a car accident in the West Bank, believing him to be a soldier, and hoping to facilitate an exchange with Israel, to release the bodies of Palestinians who were killed by Israeli soldiers.

Tiran Fero, 18, was laid to rest on Thursday after the fighters negotiated the return of his body with the Red Cross.

Initially, thinking the man was a soldier, the fighters had proposed an exchange of bodies, due to the Israeli practice of holding on to the bodies of Palestinians alleged to have carried out attacks against Israelis – thus preventing their families from mourning their deaths and burying them according to their religious customs.

The Jenin Brigade, a group of resistance fighters in the city of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, said that they had seized the body in order to negotiate an exchange of bodies with Israeli authorities.

Following 30 hours of negotiations between Israeli military representatives and the Palestinian Authority, the body was returned, with no reciprocal exchange of bodies offered by the Israeli authorities.

The funeral was held on Thursday in the town of Daliat al-Carmel, a Druze community located on Mount Carmel southwest of Haifa.

The deceased man was identified as Tiran Fero, a member of the Arab Druze minority that had Israeli citizenship. He had been in a vehicle, along with his father, in the West Bank when the vehicle was involved in an accident. He was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead. His body was then seized by the Palestinian fighters, according to local sources.

But Israeli media reported that Fero’s father told them that Tiran had been taken off life support in a hospital by a group of Palestinian gunmen. He said, “When we were in the hospital, we were standing in front of the intensive care unit. My son was connected to the ventilator and had a heartbeat. I was with my brother and my son, suddenly a gang of 20 masked men entered the room screaming. We stood by and there was nothing we could have done.”

Jenin governor Akram Rajoub countered that report, telling CNN reporters that Ferro was dead when his body was taken.

Ferro would have celebrated his 18th birthday on Thursday.
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Family of Israeli Whose Body Was Kidnapped From Palestinian Hospital: Gunmen Disconnected Him From Life Support

The 17-year-old was injured in an accident near Jenin on Tuesday ■ Outgoing PM Yair Lapid says kidnappers 'will pay a heavy price'

by Jack Khoury, Yaniv Kubovich, and Adi Hashmonai for Haaretz
Nov 23, 2022

Palestinian gunmen are holding the body of a young Israeli who was hospitalized after a traffic accident near Jenin. The victim's family says the teenager was still alive prior to the abduction.

The victim was identified as Tiran Ferro, a 17-year-old high-school student from the Druze city of Daliat al-Carmel. Ferro was traveling in a friend's vehicle on Tuesday when the traffic accident happened, and the pair were hospitalized in the West Bank.

While his friend was later moved to Israel for treatment via a military helicopter, Palestinian medical officials believed that Ferro's transfer would endanger his life. As a result, he remained at Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, where he was later kidnapped.

Tiran's uncle, who was at the hospital with his nephew, said that a group of armed men entered the building looking for "the young man who was involved in the accident."

"They fired their weapons in the air and yelled in Arabic, no one dared to stop them. They disconnected him from the life support machines and threw him into a vehicle," he added.

Ferro's family claims that the teenager was still alive when Palestinian gunmen stormed the hospital and took his body. The security establishment is investigating this claim, but it is difficult to assess whether Ferro died of his wounds before or after the abduction.

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid vowed that Israel will return Ferro's body, adding that the kidnappers "will pay a heavy price."

United Arab List party leader Mansour Abbas said he is following the incident and that he "calls on all the relevant parties to work towards releasing the body. Holding the body serves no legitimate purpose."

According to a senior Fatah official and sources in the Israeli security establishment, the body is being held in the Jenin refugee camp.

The Palestinian official explained that the gunmen staged the kidnapping because they believed Ferro was an Israeli soldier working undercover. Palestinian officials said that the evacuation of the injured by military helicopter, the increased security vigilance and the operation of drones over the Jenin refugee camp, strengthen the claim that Ferro was not a regular civilian.

Security officials in Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been negotiating since last night for the release of Ferro's body.

An agreement was reached early Wednesday morning to return the body. It was transferred to the Red Crescent ambulance which started traveling towards Israel – but during the journey, armed men took over the vehicle and kidnapped the body a second time.

Since then, the talks have continued, with Israel weighing the possibility of military action to release the body. According to a Fatah official, those who kidnapped the body are not associated with any particular organization or militant faction.

Ferro's uncle stated that he spoke with Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Ghassan Alian. He told both of them that Ferro's family doesn't want Israel to risk soldiers in order to retrieve the body: "We're willing to wait a few more days, I don't want another mother in Israel to cry."