Mr Avi Boaz, an American architect who moved to Israel and built homes for Palestinians, never thought he would meet his death at the hands of the people he often called my extended family .
The 72-year-old spent half his week living in the Palestinian-ruled town of Beit Jala in the West Bank to oversee building projects by the firm he ran with a Palestinian partner, relatives said at his funeral on Wednesday.
The rest of the time Boaz, who also held US citizenship, resided in the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim near Jerusalem.
"I knew him for 34 years. He came to our place as a visitor and loved the area so much he rented an apartment," Jamal Arja, owner of the Everest Hotel in Beit Jala where Mr Boaz lived and last lunched, told Reutersin a telephone interview.
"Everybody in Beit Jala was shocked to hear what happened to him. They never believed anyone would want to hurt him." Palestinian gunmen kidnapped Mr Boaz yesterday from a Palestinian roadblock near the West Bank town of Bethlehem where he went to buy construction supplies.
The gunmen shoved his Palestinian companion out of the car and took the partially disabled Mr Boaz to the nearby village of Beit Sahour where he was found with 20 bullets pumped into his body later in the day, Israeli army officials said.
A dozen bullets had pierced the windshield of the car he drove, which bore Israeli licence plates. He was killed 10 days after his wife died of cancer.