The family of the 10-month-old baby girl shot by a Palestinian sniper in the divided West Bank city of Hebron should bury the infant immediately according to Jewish tradition, chief rabbi Israel Meir Lau said Friday.
"In accordance with (the strict Jewish tradition of) Halacha, a dead person must be buried immediately, and I urge the family of small Shalevet Pass to respect this rite," said Lau, who represents Ashkenazi (western) Jews in Israel.
Israeli anger has flamed over Monday's killing of the baby girl, the youngest victim so far of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising. That has prompted calls from the right wing for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to take tougher action against the Palestinians.
The Pass family has refused to bury the infant, demanding as a precondition that the Israeli army occupy the Arab district overlooking the Jewish quarter which was said to be the source of the fatal shot "to save Jewish lives".
Sharon himself has tried in vain to talk Yitzhak Pass -- the father of the baby, who was himself hit in the leg during the shooting -- into going back on his demands.
Hebron is frequently a flashpoint for violence between the 400 radical settlers who live in armed and guarded enclaves in the city center among around 40,000 Palestinians -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
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