JERUSALEM: Israel’s police chief on Saturday ordered an investigation into the actions of officers at the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, after they charged the procession and beat pallbearers, sparking global outrage.
Thousands of mourners packed Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday for the burial of the 51-year-old Al Jazeera reporter. The Palestinian-American was killed two days earlier during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank.
Television footage showed pallbearers struggling to stop Abu Akleh’s casket from falling to the ground as baton-wielding police charged toward them, grabbing Palestinian flags.
“The Israel Police Commissioner in coordination with the Minister of Public Security has instructed that an investigation be conducted into the incident,” the police said in a statement.
They had coordinated funeral arrangements with the journalist’s family but “rioters tried to sabotage the ceremony and harm the police,” it said.
“As with any operational incident, and certainly an incident in which police officers were exposed to violence by rioters and in which force was subsequently used by the police, the Israel Police will be looking into the events that ensued during the funeral,” it added.
The United States was “deeply troubled to see the images of Israeli police intruding into her funeral procession,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
The European Union condemned what it said was “unnecessary force” used by the Israeli police.
On Saturday the foundation of late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said scenes of Israeli police attacking the pallbearers were “chillingly reminiscent” of what happened during the funerals of anti-apartheid activists.
Israel and the Palestinians traded blame after Abu Akleh was shot in the head on Wednesday near Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. She had been wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest marked “Press.”
Israel’s army said an interim investigation could not determine who fired the fatal bullet, noting stray Palestinian gunfire or Israeli sniper fire aimed at militants were both possible causes.
The Palestinian public prosecution said an initial probe showed “the only origin of the shooting was the Israeli occupation forces.”
Al Jazeera said Israel killed her “deliberately” and “in cold blood.”
In a rare, unanimous statement, the UN Security Council condemned the killing, calling for “an immediate, thorough, transparent, and impartial investigation,” diplomats said.
Abu Akleh, a Christian, was a highly respected reporter and her funeral drew massive crowds.
As her body left St. Joseph’s hospital in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, police stormed the mourners who had hoisted Palestinian flags.
Police said about “300 rioters” had arrived at the hospital for the procession and “prevented the family members from loading the coffin onto the hearse to travel to the cemetery — as had been planned and coordinated with the family in advance.”
The police then intervened “to disperse the mob and prevent them from taking the coffin, so that the funeral could proceed as planned,” they said, adding glass bottles and other objects were thrown at officers.
The Jerusalem Red Crescent said 33 people were injured, of whom six were hospitalized. Police said they arrested six people.
Officers then tried briefly to prevent thousands of mourners from following the coffin to the cemetery, but ultimately relented and did not intervene as Palestinian flags were raised, AFP reporters said.
The United States, European Union and United Nations have backed calls for a full investigation into her killing.
Israel has publicly called for a joint probe, which the Palestinian Authority has rejected.
A PA official said on Saturday that the authority would welcome the “participation of all international bodies in the investigation.”
“What happened in her funeral yesterday by the #occupation forces reinforces our position that rejects #Israel’s participation in this investigation,” Hussein Al-Sheikh added on Twitter.
She “was the sister of all Palestinians,” her brother Antoun Abu Akleh told AFP.
Fresh violence erupted Friday in the West Bank, including a raid and clashes around Jenin refugee camp that claimed the life of an Israeli officer.
Tensions were already running high after a wave of anti-Israeli attacks that have killed at least 19 people since March 22, including an Arab-Israeli police officer and two Ukrainians.
A total of 32 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs have died during the same period, according to an AFP tally, among them perpetrators of attacks and those killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank operations.
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After outcry, Israel police to probe actions at journalist’s funeral
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After outcry, Israel police to probe actions at journalist’s funeral
- Television footage showed pallbearers struggling to stop Abu Akleh’s casket from falling to the ground as baton-wielding police charged toward them
- The Israel Police Commissioner in coordination with the Minister of Public Security has instructed that an investigation be conducted into the incident
Israel sees spike in PTSD and suicide among troops as war persists
JERUSALEM: Israel is grappling with a dramatic increase in post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide among its troops after its two-year assault on Gaza, precipitated by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Recent reports by the Defense Ministry and by health providers have detailed the military’s mental health crisis, which comes as fighting persists in Gaza and Lebanon and as tensions flare with Iran.
The Gaza war quickly expanded with cross-border fire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and saw hundreds of thousands of soldiers and reservists deployed across both fronts in some of the heaviest fighting in the country’s history.
Israeli forces have killed more than 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza and 4,400 in southern Lebanon, according to Gazan and Lebanese officials, and Israel says more than 1,100 service members have been killed since October 7.
The war has left much of Gaza destroyed and its 2 million people overwhelmingly lack proper shelter, food or access to medical and health services.
Palestinian mental health specialists have said Gazans are suffering “a volcano” of psychological trauma, with large numbers now seeking treatment, and children suffering symptoms such as night terrors and an inability to focus.
PTSD CASES AMONG ISRAELI SOLDIERS UP 40 percent SINCE 2023
Israeli studies show the war has taken its toll on the mental health of soldiers carrying out Israel’s stated war aims of eliminating Hamas in Gaza, retrieving hostages there and disarming Hezbollah.
Some soldiers who came under attack when their military bases were invaded by Hamas on October 7 are also struggling.
Israel’s Defense Ministry says it has recorded a nearly 40 percent increase in PTSD cases among its soldiers since September 2023, and predicts the figure will increase by 180 percent by 2028. Of the 22,300 troops or personnel being treated for war wounds, 60 percent suffer from post-trauma, the ministry says.
It has expanded the health care provided to those dealing with mental health issues, expanded the budget, and said there was an increase of about 50 percent in the use of alternative treatments.
The country’s second-largest health care provider, Maccabi, said in its 2025 annual report that 39 percent of Israeli military personnel under its treatment had sought mental health support while 26 percent had voiced concerns about depression.
Several Israeli organizations like NGO HaGal Sheli, which uses surfing as a therapy technique, have taken on hundreds of soldiers and reservists suffering from PTSD. Some former soldiers have therapy dogs.
MORAL INJURY OVER DEATHS OF INNOCENTS
Ronen Sidi, a clinical psychologist who directs combat veteran research at Emek Medical Center in northern Israel, said soldiers were generally grappling with two different sources of trauma.
One source was related to “deep experiences of fear” and “being afraid to die” while deployed in Gaza and Lebanon and even while at home in Israel. Many witnessed the Hamas assault on southern Israel — in which the militants also took around 250 hostages back into Gaza — and its aftermath firsthand.
Sidi said the second source is from moral injury, or the damage done to a person’s conscience or moral compass from something they did.
“A lot of (soldiers’) split-second decisions are good decisions,” which they take under fire, “but some of them are not, and then women and children are injured and killed by accident, and living with the feeling that you have killed innocent people... is a very difficult feeling and you can’t correct what you have done,” he said.
One reservist, Paul, a 28-year-old father of three, said he had to leave his job as a project manager with a global firm because “the whistles of the bullets” above his head lingered with him even after returning home.
Paul, who declined to give his last name over privacy concerns, said he deployed in combat roles in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Although fighting has abated in recent months, he says he lives in a constant state of alert.
“I live that way every day,” Paul said.
UNTREATED TRAUMA
A soldier seeking state support for their mental health must appear before a defense ministry assessment committee which determines the severity of their case and grants them official recognition. That process can take months and can deter soldiers from seeking help, some trauma professionals say.
Israel’s Defense Ministry says it provides some immediate help to soldiers once they start the evaluation process and has increased this effort since the war began.
An Israeli parliamentary committee found in October that 279 soldiers had attempted suicide in the period from January 2024 to July 2025, a sharp increase from previous years. The report found that combat soldiers comprised 78 percent of all suicide cases in Israel in 2024.
The risk of suicide or self-harm increases if trauma is untreated, said Sidi, the clinical psychologist.
“After October 7 and the war, the mental health institutions in Israel are overwhelmed completely, and a lot of people either can’t get therapy or don’t even understand the distress that they are feeling has to do with what they have experienced.”
For soldiers, the chance of seeing combat remains high. Israel’s military remains deployed in over half of Gaza and fighting has persisted there despite a US-backed truce in October, with more than 440 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers killed.
Its troops still occupy parts of southern Lebanon, as the Lebanese army presses on with disarming Hezbollah under a separate US-brokered deal. In Syria, Israeli troops have occupied an expanded section of the country’s south since the ouster of former leader Bashar Assad.
As tensions flare with Iran and the US threatens to intervene, Israel could also find itself in another violent confrontation with Tehran, after last June’s 12-day war.
Recent reports by the Defense Ministry and by health providers have detailed the military’s mental health crisis, which comes as fighting persists in Gaza and Lebanon and as tensions flare with Iran.
The Gaza war quickly expanded with cross-border fire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and saw hundreds of thousands of soldiers and reservists deployed across both fronts in some of the heaviest fighting in the country’s history.
Israeli forces have killed more than 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza and 4,400 in southern Lebanon, according to Gazan and Lebanese officials, and Israel says more than 1,100 service members have been killed since October 7.
The war has left much of Gaza destroyed and its 2 million people overwhelmingly lack proper shelter, food or access to medical and health services.
Palestinian mental health specialists have said Gazans are suffering “a volcano” of psychological trauma, with large numbers now seeking treatment, and children suffering symptoms such as night terrors and an inability to focus.
PTSD CASES AMONG ISRAELI SOLDIERS UP 40 percent SINCE 2023
Israeli studies show the war has taken its toll on the mental health of soldiers carrying out Israel’s stated war aims of eliminating Hamas in Gaza, retrieving hostages there and disarming Hezbollah.
Some soldiers who came under attack when their military bases were invaded by Hamas on October 7 are also struggling.
Israel’s Defense Ministry says it has recorded a nearly 40 percent increase in PTSD cases among its soldiers since September 2023, and predicts the figure will increase by 180 percent by 2028. Of the 22,300 troops or personnel being treated for war wounds, 60 percent suffer from post-trauma, the ministry says.
It has expanded the health care provided to those dealing with mental health issues, expanded the budget, and said there was an increase of about 50 percent in the use of alternative treatments.
The country’s second-largest health care provider, Maccabi, said in its 2025 annual report that 39 percent of Israeli military personnel under its treatment had sought mental health support while 26 percent had voiced concerns about depression.
Several Israeli organizations like NGO HaGal Sheli, which uses surfing as a therapy technique, have taken on hundreds of soldiers and reservists suffering from PTSD. Some former soldiers have therapy dogs.
MORAL INJURY OVER DEATHS OF INNOCENTS
Ronen Sidi, a clinical psychologist who directs combat veteran research at Emek Medical Center in northern Israel, said soldiers were generally grappling with two different sources of trauma.
One source was related to “deep experiences of fear” and “being afraid to die” while deployed in Gaza and Lebanon and even while at home in Israel. Many witnessed the Hamas assault on southern Israel — in which the militants also took around 250 hostages back into Gaza — and its aftermath firsthand.
Sidi said the second source is from moral injury, or the damage done to a person’s conscience or moral compass from something they did.
“A lot of (soldiers’) split-second decisions are good decisions,” which they take under fire, “but some of them are not, and then women and children are injured and killed by accident, and living with the feeling that you have killed innocent people... is a very difficult feeling and you can’t correct what you have done,” he said.
One reservist, Paul, a 28-year-old father of three, said he had to leave his job as a project manager with a global firm because “the whistles of the bullets” above his head lingered with him even after returning home.
Paul, who declined to give his last name over privacy concerns, said he deployed in combat roles in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Although fighting has abated in recent months, he says he lives in a constant state of alert.
“I live that way every day,” Paul said.
UNTREATED TRAUMA
A soldier seeking state support for their mental health must appear before a defense ministry assessment committee which determines the severity of their case and grants them official recognition. That process can take months and can deter soldiers from seeking help, some trauma professionals say.
Israel’s Defense Ministry says it provides some immediate help to soldiers once they start the evaluation process and has increased this effort since the war began.
An Israeli parliamentary committee found in October that 279 soldiers had attempted suicide in the period from January 2024 to July 2025, a sharp increase from previous years. The report found that combat soldiers comprised 78 percent of all suicide cases in Israel in 2024.
The risk of suicide or self-harm increases if trauma is untreated, said Sidi, the clinical psychologist.
“After October 7 and the war, the mental health institutions in Israel are overwhelmed completely, and a lot of people either can’t get therapy or don’t even understand the distress that they are feeling has to do with what they have experienced.”
For soldiers, the chance of seeing combat remains high. Israel’s military remains deployed in over half of Gaza and fighting has persisted there despite a US-backed truce in October, with more than 440 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers killed.
Its troops still occupy parts of southern Lebanon, as the Lebanese army presses on with disarming Hezbollah under a separate US-brokered deal. In Syria, Israeli troops have occupied an expanded section of the country’s south since the ouster of former leader Bashar Assad.
As tensions flare with Iran and the US threatens to intervene, Israel could also find itself in another violent confrontation with Tehran, after last June’s 12-day war.
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