A journalist for Al-Jazeera has been shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said.
It said Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known Palestinian female reporter for the broadcaster’s Arabic language channel, was shot early on Wednesday and died soon after.
Another Palestinian journalist working for the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper was hurt but in a stable condition.
عاجل | استشهاد الزميلة شيرين أبو عاقلة برصاص الجيش الإسرائيلي أثناء تغطيتها لاقتحام مخيم جنين
— الجزيرة - عاجل (@AJABreaking) May 11, 2022
Advertisement
The Qatar-based broadcaster blamed Israel.
In a statement 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, Ms Abu Akleh can be seen wearing a blue flak jacket clearly marked with the word “Press”.
The Israeli military said its forces came under attack with heavy gunfire and explosives while operating in Jenin and fired back.
The military said it is “investigating the event and looking into the possibility that the journalists were hit by the Palestinian gunmen”.
Al Jazeera network correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh dies of wounds from gunshot in West Bank.
She was shot during an Israeli raid in the Palestinian city of Jenin. pic.twitter.com/2TMEy1B6rb— francesca mannocchi (@mannocchia) May 11, 2022
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.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and the Palestinians want the territory to form the main part of their future state.
Nearly three million Palestinians live in the territory under Israeli military rule.
Israel has built more than 130 settlements across the West Bank that are home to nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers, who have full Israeli citizenship.
Israelis have long been critical of Al-Jazeera’s coverage but authorities generally allow its journalists to operate freely.
Another Al-Jazeera reporter, Givara Budeiri, was briefly detained last year during a protest in Jerusalem and treated for a broken hand, which her employer blamed on rough treatment by police.
Relations between Israeli forces and the media, especially Palestinian journalists, is strained.
A number of Palestinian reporters have been hurt by rubber-coated bullets or tear gas while covering demonstrations in the West Bank.
A Palestinian journalist in Gaza was shot and killed by Israeli forces while filming violent protests along the Gaza frontier in 2018.
In November of that year, Associated Press reporter Rashed Rashid was covering a protest near the Gaza frontier when he was shot in the left ankle, apparently by Israeli fire.
Mr Rashid was wearing protective gear that clearly identified him as a journalist, and was standing with a crowd of other journalists some 600 metres away from the Israeli border when he was hit.
The military has never acknowledged the shooting.
During last year’s war between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the building in Gaza City housing the offices of The Associated Press and Al-Jazeera.
Residents were warned to evacuate and no one was hurt in the strike.
Israel said Hamas was using the building as a command centre but provided no evidence.
