50,000 Palestinians mourn 4 slain martyrs

About 50,000 Palestinians converged on Manger Square in the center of the West Bank city of Beit lahm on Thursday for the funeral of four Palestinian fighters who were assassinated by undercover Israeli forces on Wednesday night.

Mourners carried the bodies of the four men, Mohammad Shahada, Issa Marzouq, Imad Al-Kamel, and Ahmad Bilboul on their shoulders to the homes families of the dead to the central square, and then into the adjacent Omar Bin Al Khattab mosque.

Their bodies were wrapped in Hezbollah flags, in an apparent show of allegiance with the Lebanese resistance movement and political party.

Schools, shops, restaurants and other businesses shuttered their doors in observance of a general strike across the city. Beit lahm's normally bustling downtown streets were largely empty.

In a show of unity in the face of occupation, members of numerous Palestinian political factions attended the ceremony.

In speeches to the assembled crowd, representatives of the the Higher Committee of National and Islamic Forces, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Islamic Jihad denounced ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians. The Palestinian People's Party, the communists, were also present.

Kamil Hamid from the Fatah movement called for collaborators and spies who aid the Israeli occupation to be apprehended.

Across the square from the mosque, the Nativity Church sounded funeral bells.

The four Palestinian resistance activists were martyred by Israeli special forces in their car on Wednesday night. Mohammad Shahada was a local leader in Islamic Jihad.