Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of the American-Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist, who was shot in the head on Wednesday while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. She was wearing a bulletproof vest with the «press» logo and a reporter’s helmet.
As the coffin was released from St. Joseph’s Hospital in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian sector of the city also occupied by the Jewish state, the Israeli police burst into the grounds of the establishment and tried to disperse a crowd. waving Palestinian flags.
The coffin almost fell from the hands of the carriers beaten by the police but was caught in extremis, according to images broadcast by local television.
«We were deeply disturbed by the footage of Israeli police intruding on the funeral procession,» US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The European Union condemned «the disproportionate use of force and the disrespectful behavior of the Israeli police against the participants in the funeral procession».
The French representation in Jerusalem judged «deeply shocking» the «police violence», while the secretary general of the UN, Antonio Guterres, said he was «deeply disturbed».
– Condemnation of the murder at the UN –
«The occupying forces did not just kill Shireen (…) but they terrorized those who accompanied her to her final resting place», denounced Qatar.
«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,» an Israeli policeman said in a megaphone to the crowd at the compound. Saint-Joseph Hospital, according to a video released by the police.
According to a police statement, «rioters prevented family members from loading the coffin into a hearse to proceed to the cemetery, as agreed with the family… The crowd refused to hand over the coffin in the hearse and the police intervened to prevent him from taking it. During the riot triggered by the crowd, glass bottles and other objects were thrown.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported 33 injuries and the Israeli police reported six arrests.
After the intervention of the police, the crowd accompanied the coffin to a church in the Old City where a mass was pronounced, before going to the cemetery.
The journalist’s death prompted a unanimous statement from the UN Security Council, which «strongly condemned» her.
Initiated by the United States, this very rare unanimous position of the Security Council on a subject concerning Israel also calls for «an immediate, thorough, transparent and impartial investigation».
– Origin of the shot –
The Palestinian Authority, Al Jazeera and the government of Qatar accused the Israeli army of killing the 51-year-old journalist.
Israel, after claiming that she had «probably» succumbed to Palestinian fire, then said it did not rule out that the bullet was fired by its soldiers.
According to a statement from the Palestinian prosecutor’s office in Ramallah in the West Bank on Friday, «the first results of the investigation showed that the only origin of the shooting against Shireen was the occupying forces» Israeli.
Before him, the Israeli army indicated that it was not possible to immediately determine the origin of the shooting which could as well be of Palestinian origin as Israeli.
The Israeli authorities demand that the bullet be handed over to them in order to carry out a ballistic examination. They proposed that Palestinian and American experts be present during the review.
But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused a joint investigation with Israel. «The Israeli authorities committed this crime and we do not trust them.»
The funeral took place amid further clashes in and near Jenin during army operations. An Israeli policeman was killed by Palestinian fighters and 13 Palestinians were injured.
The Israeli army has launched several operations to apprehend, according to it, Palestinians wanted in the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of the Palestinian armed factions from which the perpetrators of deadly attacks in recent months in Israel originated.
