Israeli police have stormed the grounds of a Jerusalem hospital to forcibly prevent a funeral march for Shireen Abu Akleh, the Al Jazeera journalist who was killed by Israeli forces while covering an Israeli army raid in Jenin on Wednesday.
TV images on Friday showed Abu Akleh‘s coffin nearly falling to the ground as police grabbed Palestinian flags from the crowd close to the procession outside St Louis French Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
Reporting from the scene, Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan said the Israeli forces targeted mourners because they did not want them to walk with Abu Akleh’s coffin.
Police hit mourners holding the coffin with batons, almost causing it to drop, before eventually allowing it to be moved in a hearse. At least four people were arrested.