Police clash with mourners at Palestinian journalist’s funeral

Police clash with mourners at Palestinian journalist’s funeral

Israeli police clashed with Palestinian mourners packed around the coffin of killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh at the start of her funeral procession in Jerusalem on Friday.

Masked police officers faced scores of flag-waving and chanting Palestinians in the compound of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, television footage showed.

Officers then charged the crowd and at one point the group carrying her coffin backed against a wall and almost dropped the casket, recovering it just before one end hit the ground.

The violent scenes underlined the growing anger over Abu Akleh’s killing which has threatened to add further fuel to an already raging conflict.

Abu Akleh, who had covered Palestinian affairs and the Middle East for more than two decades, was shot while reporting on an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Palestinian authorities described Abu Akleh’s killing as an assassination by Israeli forces. Israel’s government initially suggested Palestinian fire might have been to blame, but officials have also said they could not rule out it was Israeli gunfire that killed her.

On Friday, Israeli police said the group of Palestinians they described as rioters had begun throwing stones in the hospital compound. “The policemen were forced to act,” they added. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian authorities.

A few minutes later, Abu Akleh’s coffin was placed in a vehicle that headed toward the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Virgin in Jerusalem’s Walled Old City, where the ceremony proceeded peacefully.