Emois to the United States. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with Palestinian-American journalist’s family Shireen Abu Akleh after criticizing the Israeli police’s intervention at his funeral, an official said on Sunday.
The Palestinian journalist also had US citizenship
In a phone call made Saturday during his plane ride to Berlin, Antony Blinken expressed his “deep condolences” to members of Shireen Abu Akleh’s family, a State Department official said. He offered the support of US diplomats in Jerusalem to the journalist’s family, who also held US citizenship, according to the same source.
The head of the American diplomacy “took note of all the journalistic work of Shireen Abu Akleh and of the importance of a free and independent press”, added the official on condition of anonymity.
Shot in the head while working
On Wednesday, this reporter for Al Jazeera, Qatar’s pan-Arab television channel, was shot in the head while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in northern the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. She wore a bullet-proof vest marked “press” and a reporter’s helmet.
At his funeral on Friday, Israeli police armed with batons tried to disperse a crowd waving Palestinian flags. The coffin almost fell from the hands of the carriers, but was caught in extremis.
Antony Blinken had previously said he was “deeply disturbed” by the “Israeli police intrusion” at the journalist’s funeral and the State Department had urged a transparent investigation into the circumstances of her death.
