Date: Friday, November 12th, 2004
Source: Custody of the Holy Land

The Father Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., attended the funeral of Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramalah with a delegation of friars from the Custody of the Holy Land and offered his condolences to the Palestinian Authority. The Custos and the friars were near where the helicopter that carried the remains of the president of Palestine, Yassir Arafat, landed. At the moment of landing there were clouds of dust blown over the people by the rotors of the helicopter , and in the midst of the mass confusion there was sporadic gunfire in the air by the military, as was seen on television.

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