A Palestinian Authority minister died shortly after an altercation with Israeli security forces during a protest on Wednesday in the West Bank.
Ziad Abu Ein, 55, a PA minister without portfolio, was taking part in a protest against Israeli settlements when he was involved in clashes with around 30 IDF troops and border police, a Reuters witness said.
According to IDF sources, the military initially believed that his death was the result of a heart attack. Officially, however, the IDF said that it was still investigating the incident.
Video footage shows Abu Ein being confronted by a Border Policemen who at one point grasped him by the neck and briefly held him with one hand. Minutes later the minister began to look faint and fell to the ground clasping his chest. He died on his way to a hospital.
One of the main images circulating from the incident is from footage shot by Sky News of a Border Patrol officer with his hand around the neck of Abu Ein. Border Patrol Spokesman Shay Hakhimi said that nonetheless any and all press inquiries must be made to the IDF spokesperson's unit because the Border Patrol officers were under IDF command during the incident and the IDF, not the Border Police, are the ones investigating it.
It remained unclear what caused Abu Ein's death.
PA Mahmoud Abbas described the attack as "a barbaric act which we cannot be silent about or accept". Abbas announced three days of national mourning and said he would take "necessary steps" after an investigation.
The IDF said it was looking into the incident. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Arabic language spokesman said the circumstances leading to the death of the minister were being investigated.
The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between Israel and the Palestinians, following months of violent unrest in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the West Bank.
Ziad Abu Ein was sentenced to life in prison by an Israeli court in 1982 for his role in a bombing that murdered two Israeli teenagers in Tiberias in 1979. He was released in 1985 as part of the Ahmed Jibril prisoner swap.
On Wednesday, he and around 100 foreign and Palestinian activists were on their way to plant trees near a Jewish settlement as part of a regular protest by a group called the Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall.
Shortly before his death, Abu Ein spoke to television reporters, sounding hoarse and short of breath.
"This is the terrorism of the occupation, this is a terrorist army, practicing its terrorism on the Palestinian people," he told the official Palestine TV. "We came to plant trees on Palestinian land, and they launch into an attack on us from the first moment. Nobody threw a single stone."
Palestinians in Ramallah closed shops in protest at the minister's death and youths threw stones at IDF soldiers guarding a Jewish settlement outside the city, Palestinian security sources said.
Palestinian officials indicated that cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli security forces in the West Bank could be suspended as a result of the PA minister's death.