Official eulogy, people's absence for Moussa Arafat's funeral

The Palestinian authority eulogized in an official funeral the body of Lt. Gen. Moussa Arafat, the military advisor of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who was killed at the hands of gunmen in Gaza on Wednesday at dawn.

The funeral which was attended by Abbas himself and several Palestinian officials and scores of gunmen started from a mosque of the headquarters of the presidency in Gaza where the prayers of the dead was made after Friday's prayers.

With the exception of leaders from Fatah, most of the representatives of other Palestinian groups were absent, and it was only attended by 1000 persons, which is an indication on the weakness of the popularity of the former Palestinian official.

Manhal, the son of Moussa Arafat took part in the funeral after he was released on Thursday, just one day after his kidnapping. Gunmen participants in the funeral vowed to avenge his killing.

A veiled spokesman on the name of the people's resistance committee said that Manhal was released after Palestinian authority negotiators promised to deal with consequences of "crimes of the collaborator Moussa Arafat."

The spokesman said that it was agreed with the Palestine national liberation movement Fatah to release Manhal Arafat according to three conditions which are "end repression, reopen the file of corruption in the Palestinian authority, and placing officials in the government based on merit."

Al-Naser Salah Eddine Squad, the military wing of the Palestinian people's resistance committees, reclaimed responsibility for the assassination of Mousa Arafat on Friday after it denied it on Thursday of what it had announced responsibility for on Wednesday.

These committees constituted the base among members of the Fatah movement but work in isolation of its leadership, in addition to few members from the two movements of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.