Ramallah, occupied West Bank (Washington Insider Magazine) – – A state funeral for deceased Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is set to take place in Ramallah, Palestine, only a day after she was killed by Israeli soldiers.
On Thursday morning, Abu Akleh’s body was brought from the Istishari Hospital in the controlled West Bank city to the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) presidential palace, where President Mahmoud Abbas will commemorate her and give her farewell.
The facility will later host a military service for Abu Akleh.
Abu Akleh’s remains will be transported in a convoy to the St Louis French Hospital in Sheikh Jarrah, in controlled East Jerusalem, where her family resides, following the service.
The burial of Abu Akleh is scheduled for Friday in controlled East Jerusalem.
Mourners and journalists began congregating at the hospital on Thursday morning in anticipation for the service.
Abu Akleh was commemorated in numerous Palestinian communities on Wednesday, including Jenin, where she had been killed, Nablus, and Ramallah, where her remains were brought. Hundreds of Palestinians participated in various protests.
Israeli military killed Abu Akleh amid reporting of a raid in Jenin on Wednesday morning, according to eyewitnesses, including Al Jazeera reporters.
They dismissed Israeli assertions that Palestinian insurgents were most likely to blame for Abu Akleh’s killing and that conflicts were taking place near her as well as the bunch of reporters she had been with, everyone of them were easily recognisable as journalists.
Israeli military fired on Abu Akleh, according to Ali al-Samoudi, an Al Jazeera correspondent who was also shot.
After Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, stated that a footage seeming to show Palestinian combatants shooting in a Jenin alleyway was proof that Palestinians murdered Abu Akleh, Israel now appears to be retracting some of its early assertions.
The alleyway was not near the place where Abu Akleh was killed, according to verification investigations.
Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi, Israel’s military chief, has now stated that it is unknown who killed Abu Akleh.
In Palestine and the Arab world, Abu Akleh was a well-known and esteemed television correspondent. She joined Al Jazeera a year after it began broadcasting in 1997.
The Jerusalem-born Palestinian-American, 51, reported from all around the controlled Palestinian area and the region.
Image via Al Jazeera