Israeli authorities on Friday are expected to return the body of a 17-year-old Palestinian girl shot dead by Israeli forces during an alleged stab attack on Monday, according to Palestinian sources.
An Israeli military liason informed the family that the body of 17-year-old Sawsan Daoud Ali Mansour would be returned on Friday afternoon, sources told Ma'an.
Mansour, who was expected to begin the first of her final high school exams on Saturday, was killed by Israeli forces on Monday at the Ras Biddu military roadblock, north of Jerusalem, after she allegedly attempted to carry out a stabbing attack against an Israeli border policewoman.
Her body has since been held at the Ofer detention center in the village of Beituniya west of the central West Bank district of Ramallah.
Sources said her body would be taken to the Ramallah Governmental Hospital before being buried in the town of Biddu northwest of Jerusalem City.
The anticipated return of Mansour’s body comes just days after Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan announced that he had ordered Israeli police to suspend the return of bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, after seeing footage of a crowd gathering outside the funeral of one such slain Palestinian, chanting “God is Great”, something Erdan deemed as “incitement”.
A spokesperson for the Israeli ministry of public security was not available for immediate comment on reasons for Mansour's body being returned during the suspension or if the suspension had been removed.
Israel currently holds the bodies of at least a dozen Palestinians, including six Jerusalemites, killed by Israeli forces since October while they were allegedly committing or attempting to commit attacks.
Israel dramatically expanded its policy of withholding bodies since the beginning of a wave of unrest across the occupied Palestinian territory since October -- which has killed more than 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis -- although it has scaled back on the policy in recent months.
