A female Al Jazeera reporter was shot and killed during a raid on a refugee camp, with Qatar claiming Israeli security forces ‘shot her in the face’.
Well-known Palestinian television personality Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, was killed during a raid on the occupied West Bank town of Jenin early Wednesday.
Al Jazeera put the blame for her death at the feet of Israeli security forces, who said it is ‘investigating the event and looking into the possibility that the journalists were hit by the Palestinian gunmen.’
Another Palestinian journalist working for the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper was wounded but in stable condition, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The Qatar-based broadcaster blamed Israeli forces, saying she was shot ‘deliberately’ and ‘in cold blood’ by Israeli troops while wearing a press vest and helmet.
In a statement that flashed on its channel, it called on the international community to ‘condemn and hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for deliberately targeting and killing our colleague, Shireen Abu Akleh.’
In video footage of the incident, Abu Akleh can be seen wearing a blue flak jacket clearly marked with the word ‘PRESS.’
Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said it had proposed to the Palestinian Authority a joint pathological investigation into the reporter’s death.
‘Journalists must be protected in conflict zones and we all have a responsibility to get to the truth,’ he tweeted.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security matters, condemned what it said was a ‘shocking crime’ committed by Israeli forces.
Abu Akleh, 51, was born in Jerusalem. She began working for Al-Jazeera in 1997 and regularly reported on-camera from across the Palestinian territories.
Israel has carried out near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks amid a series of deadly attacks inside Israel, many of them carried out by Palestinians from in and around Jenin. The town, and particularly its refugee camp, has long been known as a militant bastion.