Israeli authorities have refused to release the body of activist Awdah Hathaleen, demanding that the family agree to certain conditions for the body to be returned, Al Jazeera reports.

Hathaleen, a 31-year-old activist working to stop Israel’s expulsions of villagers of Masafer Yatta from their homes, was shot dead by an Israeli settler last week.

One of the conditions includes limiting the funeral to 15 people.

Fathi Nimer, the co-director of Palestinian Policy Network Al-Shabaka, says the withholding of the body of Awdah Hathaleen is a strategy to break the spirit of the Palestinian activist’s family and community.

“This is the denial of any form of closure for the family,” Nimer told Al Jazeera, adding that there are hundreds of Palestinian bodies held by the Israeli army in cemeteries. “This is a tactic to break the spirit of the village and to break the cycle of resistance that Awdah was inspiring.”