French hospital accuses Israel of attacking journalist’s funeral
JERUSALEM – The French Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem has accused Israeli police of assaulting the funeral procession of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
On Friday May 13, Israeli police surrounded mourners and used stun grenades as well as batons to assault pallbearers carrying Abu Akleh’s casket as it was being carried out of the hospital in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
“What increases the awfulness of the scene is that it took place inside the hospital building without any consideration for the sanctity of the place or the occasion,” hospital director Jamil Kousa told a press conference.
He said that the Israeli police attacked the place even though the hospital is sponsored by the Vatican and the French state.
“They stormed the hospital, attacked the casket and pallbearers, fired rubber bullets and scared patients and visitors,” Kousa lamented.
In the wake of international condemnations of the Israeli attack on the funeral, the Israeli police said that it had opened an investigation into the incident, the results of which will be presented in the coming days. However, Palestinian leadership has expressed lack of trust in any investigations conducted by the Israeli state.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran 51 year-old journalist, was covering an Israeli military raid near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when she was shot dead on Wednesday May 11. Palestinian officials and her employer, Al Jazeera, say she was targeted for murder by Israeli forces.
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