Gaza rockets fired at south Israel, as Palestinians clash with IDF in West Bank Palestinian protesters gather in Hebron

and near Yitzhar settlement ahead of prisoner's funeral, hurling rocks at Israeli forces; mortar shell explodes in south Israel, causing no casualties; two Palestinian youths killed by IDF fire late Wednesday after throwing firebombs at troops. By Chaim Levinson, Jack Khoury, Apr.04, 2013 | 2:32 PM | 2 Gili Cohen and The Associated Press |

Thousands of mourners turned out on Thursday for the funerals of three Palestinians, including two teenagers killed by Israel Defense Forces' gunfire in some of the worst violence in the West Bank in years.Meanwhile, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at Israel for a third straight day. The upsurge in unrest in the West Bank was triggered on Tuesday by the death of Maysara Abuhamdieh, a 64-year-old prisoner who was serving a life term in an Israeli jail for a 2002 foiled bombing and succumbed to cancer. Palestinian officials accused Israel of delaying treatment for Abuhamdieh and gave him full military honors at a funeral on Thursday in his hometown of Hebron, where masked gunmen fired into the air as his body arrived at a mosque in the divided West Bank city.

Palestinian protesters gathered in Policemans Square in Hebron prior to the funeral, hurling rocks at Israeli forces, who responded using crowd dispersing methods. About 100 Palestinians also rallied near the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar and threw rocks there at Israeli forces there, as well. Two vehicles one Israeli-owned, the other Palestinian were damaged. IDF forces fired tear gas a stun grenades to disperse the crowd. In the wave of disturbances that followed the prisoner's death, four Palestinian youths threw firebombs at an Israeli checkpoint near Tul Karm in the northern West Bank after dark on Wednesday. An initial IDF investigation found that the IDF troops on lookout identified a group of Palestinians coming from the direction of the village of Anabta toward a guard post, near the Einav settlement in the northern West Bank. The Palestinians approached the post and hurled firebombs at the troops. The IDF report notes that the troops believed the Palestinians had also opened fire on the post, but no soldier was wounded. The IDF troops opened fire on the attackers, killing Amer Nassar, 17, and Naji Belbisi, 18, from Anabta. The bodies of Nassar and Belbisi, their blood-stained faces clearly visible, were carried on stretchers through the packed streets of Anabta on Thursday, held aloft by uniformed members of the Palestinian security forces. "O martyrs rest, rest. We will continue the struggle," the crowds chanted as the lifeless teenagers passed by. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel's use of lethal force showed that it wanted to "provoke chaos" in the Palestinian territories and avoid any moves toward a peace deal. The wave of violence erupted two weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama paid his first official visit to the region, urging the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume long-stalled peace talks but offering no initiative to break the deadlock.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to travel to Jerusalem again next week to review the stalemate.

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