Israeli police announced on Saturday that they would open an investigation after the international outcry sparked by images showing the intervention of the police at the funeral in Jerusalem of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whose coffin nearly fell to the ground.
Read alsoFuneral of Shirin Abou Aqleh: the European Union denounces the use of force by Israel
“
The Israel Police Commissioner, in coordination with the Minister of Public Security, has ordered an investigation into the incident.
The findings of the investigation will be presented to the commissioner in the coming days
,” police said in a statement released during the Jewish weekly rest day of Shabbat.
Thousands of Palestinians attend the funeral of American-Palestinian journalist from Al Jazeera TV, who was shot in the head on Wednesday while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory by Israel since 1967. She wore a bulletproof vest marked "
press
" and a news helmet.
As the coffin was released from St. Joseph's Hospital in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian sector of the city also occupied by Israel, police burst into the facility and attempted to disperse a crowd waving Palestinian flags .
The coffin almost fell from the hands of the bearers who were hit by police armed with batons but was caught in extremis, according to images broadcast on social networks and television.
In its statement, the police said that its "
officers had been exposed to violence from the rioters, which prompted them to use force
".
"
The police support their officers (...)
" but would like to "
draw lessons from this incident
".
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