Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, shot in the head on Wednesday while covering an Israeli army raid in the northern occupied West Bank, He received a state funeral in Ramallah on Thursday attended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abu Akleh, reporter for Al Jazeera and died at the age of 51, was "a heroine who sacrificed her life in defense of her cause and her people"Abbas said at the event, which was also attended by the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mohamed Shtayeh.
Both officials gave the last goodbye to the renowned journalist by laying a wreath on her coffin, after the funeral procession arrived at the Muqata presidential palace from the Istihsari Hospital.
With bagpipes in the background, the body was carried away by the honor guard wrapped in a Palestinian flag and a press vest.
"We hold the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the assassination"said Abbas, for whom "this crime should not go unpunished".
The president, who on Wednesday accused Israel of "attack journalists to hide the truth and silence them"reiterated this Thursday that his government rejects a joint investigation with Israel into the death of Abu Akleh and that it will go “immediately to the International Criminal Court to prosecute the criminals".
For his part, the Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Benet, insisted this Thursday on a joint investigation and advocated that the ANP “do not take any steps to obstruct the investigation or contaminate the process".
The Israeli government claims to have “no final conclusion” after having carried out an initial investigation of all the troops that participated in yesterday’s operation in the city of Jenin, the focus of multiple violent episodes during the last month and a half in the framework of the current rise in tension in the area that has already left a balance of some 50 dead.
After the state funeral in Ramallah, the body of Abu Akleh – who underwent an autopsy on Wednesday in Nablus – was transferred to Saint Joseph’s Hospitalin occupied East Jerusalem, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
After receiving tributes in different Palestinian cities on Wednesday, the journalist -Christian, Palestinian and American citizen- is expected to be laid to rest on Friday afternoon in a Catholic church and then be buried in the Mount Zion Cemetery next to her mother. , a source close to the family told EFE.
The Foreign Press Association in Israel and Palestine has expressed shock and dismay following the death of Abu Akleh.
The Arab League and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, have held Israel directly responsible for his death, something that the Al Jazeera chain and eyewitnesses to the events also did.