Israeli police charge the crowd at the funeral of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

Violence erupted on Friday (May 13th) in the grounds of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Jerusalem as Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was released from the coffin when Israeli police dispersed a crowd waving Palestinian flags, journalists say. AFP and local media.

Horrible scenes in #Jerusalem as Israeli security forces beat mourners carrying the casket of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh pic.twitter.com/tcVAmV4pjd

— Dylan Collins (@collinsdyl) May 13, 2022

Footage broadcast by Palestine TV shows the coffin of the Al Jazeera reporter, killed in an Israeli raid in the West Bank on Wednesday, nearly falling to the ground as Israeli police disperse the crowd.

AFP journalists saw Israeli forces storming the hospital compound in occupied and annexed East Jerusalem. “If you don’t stop these nationalist chants, we will have to disperse you using 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 a video released by the police.

Shireen Abu Akleh’s coffin was finally transported to the Old City where a mass was celebrated in a Catholic church, before burial in a nearby cemetery. The death of this reporter, icon of Palestinian journalism, has aroused a wave of emotion in the Palestinian Territories, in the Arab world where her reports have been followed for more than two decades, in Europe and in the United States.

The 51-year-old Christian Palestinian journalist who also has American nationality, was shot in the head while covering an Israeli operation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, territory Palestinian occupied by Israel. These images caused the European Union to reactwho said to himself “dismayed”by the use of force “useless” of Israel. “These disproportionate behaviors only fuel tensions”estimates the EU Delegation to the Palestinians.