(Jenin) Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, one of the best-known of the pan-Arab channel al-Jazeera, was shot dead Wednesday morning while covering an Israeli army operation in a tense sector of the West Bank busy.
Posted at 6:27
Updated at 7:07 am
The Palestinian Ministry of Health and the al-Jazeera channel announced the death of the star journalist by a shooting of the Israeli army during these clashes in Jenin, stronghold of the Palestinian armed factions in the north of the occupied West Bank.
An AFP photographer on site reported the Israeli army shooting and saw the body of the reporter who was wearing a bulletproof vest with the word “press” written on it. He said he did not see any Palestinian militiamen near the scene where the journalist was killed.
Another journalist, Ali al-Samoudi, injured during these clashes, accused the Israeli army of having opened fire on the journalists. “We were on our way to cover the army operation when they opened fire on us […] A bullet hit me. The second bullet hit Shireen,” he said.
The Israeli army said it had carried out operations in the Palestinian camp of Jenin and other areas of the West Bank in the past few hours to “apprehend people suspected of terrorism”.
“During these counterterrorism activities in the Palestinian camp in Jenin, dozens of Palestinian gunmen opened fire and threw explosive objects at Israeli forces, threatening their lives. The soldiers responded. People were hit,” the Israeli army said.
“The army is investigating these events and is considering the possibility that the journalists were hit by Palestinian gunmen,” the soldiers added. “According to the information we have gathered, it seems likely that armed Palestinians, who opened fire indiscriminately at this time, were responsible for the journalist’s unfortunate death,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett later added.
Palestinian, Christian, in her fifties and also an American national, Shireen Abu Akleh had worked in The Voice of PalestineRadio Monte-Carlo, before joining the al-Jazeera channel, where she became known throughout the Middle East for her reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the middle of the day, Palestinians laid flowers on the side of the road as the car carrying his remains passed in the north of the occupied West Bank, noted an AFP journalist.
A bullet “in the face”
In a statement, al-Jazeera TV said Shireen Abu Akleh was killed “in cold blood” by Israeli forces.
“Al-Jazeera condemns this heinous crime, which aims to prevent the media from doing their job,” said the Qatari channel, calling on the international community to “hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for intentionally targeting and killed Shireen”, who was shot “in the face” according to the Qatari authorities.
Israel has offered the Palestinians a “joint investigation” into the journalist’s death, said its foreign minister, Yair Lapid.
The Palestinian government has called for an “international investigation” into the journalist’s death, spokesman Ibrahim Melhem told AFP, while President Mahmoud Abbas for his part accused the “Israeli government of being entirely responsible” for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh.
US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides called for a “thorough investigation” into the death of the “American-Palestinian” journalist, also condemned by the UN envoy to the Middle East, Tor Wenesland.
One year after Gaza
The death of Shireen Abu Akleh comes almost a year to the day after the destruction of the Jalaa tower, where the offices of the Qatari channel were located in the Gaza Strip, during an Israeli airstrike in the midst of the war between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Jewish state.
This 11-day war left 260 dead on the Palestinian side, including many combatants and children, and 14 deaths in Israel, including a soldier and two minors.
A year after the war in Gaza, tension remains between the Jewish state and Hamas. On Wednesday, a Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad, accused Israeli forces of having “intentionally killed” the al-Jazeera journalist, which the army denied.
Since March 22, Israel has been the target of a series of attacks that have killed at least 18 people. Two of his attacks were perpetrated by Israeli Arabs, and four of them by Palestinians, including three young people from Jenin, where the Israeli army has stepped up operations in recent weeks.
In the aftermath of these anti-Israeli attacks, 31 Palestinians including assailants and an 18-year-old youth Wednesday near Ramallah, were killed in incidents with the Israeli army.