Coffin carrying veteran journalist’s body shown falling as Israeli police beat mourners with batons

Mourners had marched from Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate to Mount Zion cemetery. They were met with violence at the St. Joseph hospital complex by Israeli police when they tried to carry Abu Akleh’s coffin, which Al Jazeera footage showed being rocked and then falling out of the hands of some of the pallbearers, as Israeli police beat them with batons.Crowds walked behind as Abu Akleh’s rose-covered coffin was carried by pallbearers and lain down to rest next to her parents’ grave. Church bells echoed through the cemetery.The burial was taking place a day after a memorial procession that brought thousands to the West Bank city of Ramallah.Mourners flocked to the city’s streets on Friday and huddled in front of St. Joseph hospital in East Jerusalem, where Abu Akleh’s body remained until the burial. Muslims performed Friday prayers and mourners chanted “walking, walking on foot,” demanding that Abu Akleh’s coffin be carried and transported on foot from the hospital to the Greek Catholic church, where a service will be held, and then to the burial site. Israeli police were lined outside the hospital, according to CNN reporters. Police roadblocks were set up around the hospital.Mourners carried Abu Akleh’s coffin out of the hospital, but were met with strong resistance from Israeli police who compelled them to transport the body by car. A flash bomb and tear gas were fired, according to CNN reporters.Thousands were packed inside and outside the church as Abu Akleh’s body arrived. Women were heard ululating in mourning and priests sang Christian hymns in Arabic as the coffin, draped in Palestinian flags, was carried through the crowd.The 51-year-old Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist was a Givara Al-Buderi, a fellow Al Jazeera correspondent and a close personal friend of Abu Akleh, said she saw the entry wound of a bullet just above the right eyebrow and was told by the doctor that a part of the bullet had remained lodged in Abu Akleh’s skull.Al-Buderi was called by doctors to help remove Abu Akleh’s clothing and change her for the funeral.”We took off her clothes and had to put a white dress on her,” Al-Buderi told CNN, “I tried to put my hand behind her head, but there was nothing there.””I felt around but there was nothing, nothing left.” An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated where Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral service was due to be held. It was being held at a Greek Catholic Church.CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim, Mostafa Salem and Celine Alkhaldi in Abu Dhabi contributed reporting.