Clashes erupted on Friday in the compound of a hospital in East Jerusalem during the unveiling of the coffin of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, where Israeli police dispersed a crowd waving flags of Palestinian.
Footage released by local television shows the coffin of Qatari television reporter Al-Jazeera, who was shot in the head on Wednesday while covering an Israeli operation at the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.
Israeli police entered the hospital grounds to ban songs sung by the crowd as a tribute to the 51-year-old Palestinian journalist.
If you do not stop these national anthems, we must disperse you by force and we will prevent the funeral from taking place.said an Israeli policeman through a megaphone in the direction of the crowd, according to video released by police.
Israeli police said they had been forced to use methods of dispersing chaos to stop throwing stones against his forces.
Brutal Israeli special forces attacked the funeral procession of Shireen Abu Akleh coming out of St. Joseph’s HospitalHanane Achraoui, a former tenor of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was criticized on Twitter.
” The inhumanity of Israel can be seen in full. “
Eventually, Shireen Abu Akleh’s coffin was taken to the Old City where a mass was held in a church, before being buried in a nearby cemetery.
The source of the shooting has not been determined
The Israeli army indicated on Friday that it could not immediately determine the source of the shooting that led to the journalist’s death.
The conclusion of the preliminary report did not determine the source of the gunshot that hit and killed the reporter.said the army in a statement.
The investigation shows that there are two possibilities for the source of the hunt that killed himaccording to the army.
The first option is a intense fire from Palestinian gunmen [en direction des forces militaires israéliennes]while hundreds of bullets were fired from several locationsestimate this source.
Another option is during the battle, one of the soldiers [israélien] fired several bullets from a jeep using telescopic sight at a terrorist who shot at his vehicle, said the army.
On Wednesday Israel, after saying that the journalist had most likely surrendered to Palestinian fire, he said he did not rule out that the bullet was fired by his soldiers.
The Israeli army said it would continue the investigation by all available means, but regretted the absence of key elements that could determine the source of the hunt.
Israeli authorities demanded that they be given the bullet that killed the journalist in order to conduct a ballistic examination. The Jewish state suggested that Palestinian and American experts be present in this analysis.
For his part, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday accused the Israeli authorities fully responsible of the journalist’s death, denying a joint investigation into Israel.
” The Israeli authorities committed this crime and we do not trust them. “
An initial autopsy was performed in the West Bank shortly after his death, but no results were released.
With information from the AFP
Source: Radio-Canada
