AA / Washington
US President Joe Biden on Friday avoided condemning the violence committed by Israeli police at the funeral of Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied city of Jerusalem.
This emerged from a press conference, during which a journalist asked him if he condemned the assault and beating of participants in Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral procession by Israeli forces.
Biden said, “I don’t know all the details of what happened (at Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral), but I do know there needs to be an investigation into the matter.”
Ahead of Biden’s press conference, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US administration was “deeply disturbed” by footage of the scenes of violence at the exit of St. Joseph’s Hospital in the coffin of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, following the assault by Israeli forces, in the grounds of this hospital in Jerusalem.
Psaki condemned what she described as “extremely disturbing footage of Israeli police using batons and storming the funeral procession of Al-Jazeera Palestinian-American correspondent (and citizen) Shireen Abu Akleh “.
“We deplore the intrusion into what should have been a peaceful procession. We demanded respect for the funeral procession, the loved ones of the deceased and the family in this sensitive context,” Psaki said.
Earlier on Friday, Israeli police attacked Palestinians attending the funeral procession of journalist Abu Akleh in East Jerusalem.
Palestinians had tried to leave the French hospital in the Sheikh Jarrah district, carrying the journalist’s coffin on their shoulders, chanting nationalist songs and waving the Palestinian flag.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that “dozens of Palestinians were injured in the Israeli police raid on the French hospital”.
The Israeli police, for its part, explained in a press release that “rioters broke the law and took advantage of the funeral procession to disturb the order”.
The Palestinian Health Ministry on Wednesday announced the death of Qatari Al-Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, following being hit in the head by Israeli army gunfire in the city. from Jenin.
The Palestinian Authority and the Al-Jazeera network have accused Israel of deliberately killing Shireen Abu Akleh by shooting her while she was doing her job. The Israeli army, for its part, declared that its first elements of investigation indicated that the Palestinian-American reporter had been “killed by Palestinian gunmen”.
* Translated from Arabic by Mounir Bennour.
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