Shireen Abu Akleh’s pallbearer arrested after Israeli forces' shocking attack on mourners at funeral

A pallbearer at Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral who was brutally attacked by Israeli police while carrying the slain journalist’s coffin has now been arrested. 

Amr Abu Khudeir, 34, was arrested at his home in Shuufat in occupied East Jerusalem by Israeli authorities in the early hours of Monday morning, according to his lawyer, 

The pallbearer, nicknamed “the coffin protector”, has been held in solitary confinement and repeatedly interrogated about events surrounding the funeral, reported Al Jazeera. 

“He gets no light or sense of the time of day in his two-metre-by-one underground cell,” said lawyer Khaldoun Najim according to the pan-Arab news network. 

The lawyer said Abu Khudeir, a father of two, attended a court hearing on Monday and had his detention extended until Sunday.  

Fifty-one-year-old veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces while covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank last Wednesday.

Her death and Israeli police brutality toward mourners at her funeral have sparked international outrage.

تقاومين حتى آخر لحظة يا شيرين..لم يسقط التابوت pic.twitter.com/KvQeqI3CTv

— الحـكـيم 𓂆 🇵🇸 ✌️ ⏃ (@Hakeam_shateila) May 13, 2022

Abu Khudeir, so far, is the only pallbearer at Abu Akleh’s funeral to be arrested.

Israeli authorities alleged he has connections to a “terrorist organisation,” said the lawyer, who rejected these accusations given that Abu Khudeir was mainly asked about Akleh’s funeral in detention. 

This is not the first time the 34-year-old, a well-known activist, has been arrested by Israeli police, according to Al Jazeera. 

In the last 48 hours, Israeli forces have also arrested over 50 people in Jerusalem after the funeral of 23-year-old Palestinian Waleed Al-Sharif late on Monday. The young man died of wounds caused by Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa compound weeks earlier.  

Israeli police threw stun grenades, tear gas and fired rubber-coated bullets at mourner's during Sharif's funeral.