️ Palestinian mourners almost dropped the coffin of an Al Jazeera reporter Friday as Israeli police attempted to prevent them from leaving a hospital compound in Jerusalem.
MORE: Mourners waved Palestinian flags and chanted as they crowded around Shireen Abu Akleh's coffin at the start of her funeral procession from St. Joseph's Hospital in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Police then charged the crowd back toward a hospital building.
Stun grenades were also fired.
As pallbearers retreated toward the building, Abu Akleh's coffin was almost upended before they managed to raise it back onto their shoulders.
Reuters understands police wanted the coffin to be transported by hearse rather than by the mourners in a procession.
The violent scenes underlined the growing anger over Abu Akleh's killing, which has threatened to add further fuel to an already raging conflict.
Abu Akleh, who had covered Palestinian affairs and the Middle East for more than two decades, was shot while reporting on an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, May 11.
Palestinian authorities described Abu Akleh's killing as an assassination by Israeli forces.
Israel's government initially suggested Palestinian militants might have been to blame, but officials have also said they could not rule out that Israeli gunfire killed her.
On Friday, Israeli police said the group of Palestinians they described as rioters had begun throwing stones in the hospital compound.
"The policemen were forced to act," they added.
There was no immediate comment from Palestinian authorities.
(Reuters)
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