Israeli police beat mourners at Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral

As thousands gathered to mourn slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli police moved in on the crowd of mourners, beating demonstrators with batons and causing pallbearers to briefly drop the casket.

The Al Jazeera correspondent was shot dead while reporting on an Israeli raid in the West Bank as the Israeli military clashed with Palestinian gunmen.

The police crackdown came during a rare show of Palestinian nationalism in east Jerusalem, the part of the holy city that Israel captured in 1967 and that the Palestinians claim as their capital.

Abu Akleh’s death has brought a wave of grief in the Arab world.

Mourners hoisted Palestinian flags and chanted “Palestine, Palestine.”

Police accused the crowd of incitement and violence and say officers were “forced to act.”

Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, was at the morial and called for a joint investigation into Abu Akleh’s death.

He vowed to take the case to the International Criminal Court.