Clashes erupted between Israeli police and mourning Palestinians around the coffin of al-Jazeera journalist Shreen Abu Agle at the start of a funeral procession in Jerusalem on Friday, Reuters reported.
Masked Israeli police attacked those carrying the coffin of Shireen Abu Agle and clashed with dozens of Palestinians waving flags in the courtyard of St. Joseph’s Hospital in annexed East Jerusalem.
Violent scenes highlight the growing anger over the assassination of Palestinian-American journalist Abu Agle, whose death will further provoke the current conflict.
Abu Agle, who has been covering up the situation in the Palestinian territories and the Middle East for more than two decades, was shot in the head while reporting on the Israeli offensive in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. She was wearing a bulletproof vest with the word “Press” written on it and a reporter’s helmet.
Palestinian officials have described his death as an assassination attempt by Israeli forces. The Israeli government initially pointed to a Palestinian shooting, but officials said they did not deny that the journalist had been killed in an Israeli shooting.
On Friday, after the hospital incidents, the coffin was placed in a car that went to the Annunciation Basilica in the Old City of Jerusalem, where the ceremony continued quietly.
During a preliminary investigation, the Israeli military said on Friday that “the source of the shooting that killed Shireen Abu Agle could not be determined beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Israeli forces resumed attacks on Friday in the suburb of Jenin, where Abu Agle was killed. At least 13 people have been injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The military says an Israeli policeman has been killed and several others wounded in a counter-terrorism operation.
Author: MB
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