Veteran al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was killed yesterday as she covered a raid on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
Al-Jazeera said its journalist had been shot dead “deliberately” and “in cold blood” by Israeli troops.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it was likely that Palestinian gunfire had killed the reporter.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Abu Aqleh, 51, a Palestinian Christian, was a prominent figure in the channel’s Arabic news service.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had conducted an operation in Jenin refugee camp early yesterday, but denied it had deliberately targeted a reporter.
“The [army] of course does not aim at journalists,” an official from the Israeli military said.
“In a blatant murder, violating international laws and norms, the Israeli occupation forces assassinated in cold blood al-Jazeera’s correspondent in Palestine,” al-Jazeera said in a statement.
It called on the international community to hold the Israeli forces accountable for their “intentional targeting and killing” of the journalist.
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid said that Israel was seeking a “joint pathological investigation into the sad death of journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh.”
“Journalists must be protected in conflict zones and we all have a responsibility to get to the truth,” Lapid said.
Palestinian gunmen in the camp were likely responsible for Abu Aqleh’s death, he said.
“According to the information we’ve gathered, it appears likely that armed Palestinians — who were indiscriminately firing at the time — were responsible for the unfortunate death of the journalist,” Bennett said in a statement.
Another al-Jazeera journalist, producer Ali al-Samudi, was wounded in the incident, the broadcaster said.
The army said there was an exchange of fire between suspects and security forces, and that it was “investigating the event and looking into the possibility that journalists were hit by the Palestinian gunmen.”
Al-Samudi said that there were no Palestinian fighters in the area where Abu Aqleh was shot.
“If there were resistance fighters, we would not have gone into the area,” he said in testimony posted online, adding that the Israelis “fired towards us.”
A photographer at the scene said that Abu Aqleh was wearing a press flak jacket when she was shot.
The photographer reported that Israeli forces were firing in the area and then saw Abu Aqleh’s body lying on the ground.
The army said that during its operation in the camp, “massive fire was shot toward Israeli forces by tens of armed Palestinian gunmen.”
People in the camp “also hurled explosive devices toward the soldiers, endangering their lives,” it said. “The soldiers responded with fire toward the sources of the fire and explosive devices. Hits were identified.”
The Palestinian Authority called Abu Aqleh’s killing an “execution,” and part of an Israeli effort to obscure the “truth” about its occupation of the West Bank.
Hamas called the incident “a premeditated murder.”
Qatari Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Lolwah al-Khater said that Israeli troops had killed Abu Aqleh “by shooting her in the face” in what she called an act of “state sponsored Israeli terrorism.”
‘EATING UP SPRING’: Temperatures are 10oC to 15oC above the seasonal average and a city northwest of Madrid experienced its first ‘tropical’ May night on Friday Parts of Spain are experiencing their hottest May since records began, as a mass of hot, dry air blows in from Africa, bringing with it dusty skies and temperatures of more than 40°C. Spain’s state meteorological agency, Aemet, has warned of a weekend heat wave of an “extraordinary intensity,” with temperatures between 10°C and 15°C above the seasonal average and more akin to high summer than mid-May. “The early hours of 21 May have been extraordinarily hot for the time of year across a good part of the center and south of the peninsula,” Aemet said on Saturday. “In many places the
BUSINESS AS USUAL: Thousands of people were forcibly removed from their homes in the dead of night and all mentions of the incident were scrubbed from the Internet Thousands of COVID-19-negative Beijing residents were forcibly relocated to quarantine hotels overnight due to a handful of infections, as the Chinese capital begins to take more extreme control measures resembling virus-hit Shanghai. Beijing has been battling its worst outbreak since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 1,300 since late last month, leading city restaurants, schools and tourist attractions to be closed indefinitely. China’s strategy to achieve zero COVID-19 cases includes strict border closures, lengthy quarantines, mass testing and rapid, targeted lockdowns. More than 13,000 residents of the locked-down Nanxinyuan residential compound in southeast Beijing were
‘I’M STUNNED’: The disease is not known to be sexually transmitted, but a large outbreak might reveal previously unknown transmission routes, a virologist said Scientists who have monitored numerous outbreaks of monkeypox in Africa say they are baffled by the disease’s recent spread in Europe and North America. Cases of the smallpox-related disease have previously been seen only among people with links to central and West Africa. However, in the past week, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the US, Sweden, Canada all reported infections, mostly in young men who had not previously traveled to Africa. There are about 80 confirmed cases worldwide and 50 more suspected ones, the WHO said. France, Germany, Belgium and Australia reported their first cases on Friday. “I’m stunned by this. Every day I
INTERVENTION: A source said that a border patrol agent had rushed into the school without waiting for backup and killed the teen gunman, who was behind a barricade An 18-year-old man on Tuesday opened fire at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said. The attacker was killed by law enforcement. The death toll also included two adults, authorities said. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that one of the two was a teacher. The assault at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a US school since a man killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Outside the town civic center, where families were told to await news
RSS