Palestinian President Yasser Arafat today flew to the West Bank city of Ramallah with the body of Faisal al-Husseini, the top Palestinian official for Jerusalem who died in Kuwait yesterday of a heart attack.
Two helicopters, one carrying Mr Husseini's coffin draped in a Palestinian flag and close family members and another with Mr Arafat and his aides on board, took off from Amman's Marka airport for the brief half-hour flight to Ramallah.
Mr Arafat arrived earlier today to collect Mr Husseini's body, which had been flown to Jordan on the Emir of Kuwait's plane.On his arrival, Mr Arafat repeated his accusation that an Israeli tear-gassing contributed to Mr Husseini's heart attack.
"Just days before his martyrdom, he (Husseini) and Ahmed Tibi were hit by tear gas and you know the poor man had asthma and this tear gas exacerbated the asthma in his chest," Mr Arafat told reporters.
Mr Arafat appeared to be referring to a May 16th incident in the West Bank when Mr Husseini and Israeli legislator Tibi were among a group of 200 West Bank Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel who faced a stifling teargas assault from Israeli security forces who tried to disperse them.
On that occasion, Mr Husseini was taken to a nearby clinic for treatment of teargas inhalation.
The suggestion by Mr Arafat that the tear-gassing contributed to the heart attack that killed Mr Husseini, who was 60, seemed likely to inflame passions amid the raging violence of a Palestinian uprising for independence.