Palestinian Dies of Wounds after Demo

A Palestinian who was seriously injured by a rubber bullet to the head during a protest which erupted after a prisoner died in Israeli custody died of his wounds on Thursday, medical officials said.

"Mohammed Asfour died this morning after being in hospital for a long time after he was injured during a demonstration," a spokesman for Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital told AFP.

Asfour, a 22-year-old student studying sports, was seriously wounded by a rubber-coated steel bullet to the head fired by Israeli troops during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Abud on February 23, activists said.

He was initially taken to a Palestinian hospital but later transferred to Ichilov, they said.

The protest erupted after news leaked out that a Palestinian man had died in Israeli custody after being interrogated by the Shin Bet internal security services, sparking angry demonstrations across the territories.

Asfour was to be buried on Friday after the weekly prayers in his home village of Abud, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of Ramallah.

His death comes after weeks of heightened tensions across the West Bank over the issue of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, some of whom have been on hunger strike for months.

The protests spiked on February 23 after news emerged that Arafat Jaradat, 30, had died after days of Shin Bet interrogation on suspicion of throwing stones.

Palestinian officials have claimed that a joint autopsy showed Jaradat died after being tortured, but Israel says further tests are needed to determine the cause of death.