Israel Police Open Probe Into Violence at Abu Akleh Funeral

The Israel Police have opened an investigation into the violence surrounding the funeral of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed while reporting on an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. The probe was announced on Saturday, a day after police officers were seen in videos of the funeral hitting pallbearers with batons, nearly causing the casket to fall to the ground, after it was removed from Jerusalem’s St. Joseph’s Hospital. The police say that funeral-goers were violent toward them, and that they used force to protect themselves as well as to prevent the funeral from becoming nationalistic, led by a violent mob.

The police said that they had coordinated police presence at the funeral with Abu Akleh’s family; something which her brother denied to reporters. A police statement issued on Saturday said that they had planned for a “calm and dignified” funeral for Abu Akleh, but that “hundreds of rioters tried to sabotage the ceremony and harm the police.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously condemned the killing of Abu Akleh and called for “an immediate, thorough, transparent, and impartial investigation into her killing.”