Al Jazeera accuses Israeli forces of killing journalist in West Bank | Israel

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Al Jazeera has accused Israel of deliberately killing one of its reporters during a firefight between Israeli security forces and Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.

Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, a Palestinian and one of the Arab world’s most well-known reporters who had covered the conflict for decades, was shot in the head on Wednesday morning and taken to hospital in critical condition while covering a military raid in the northern town, a stronghold of the Palestinian Fatah movement and historical flashpoint in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Abu Akleh was wearing a helmet and body armour that was clearly marked as “press”. The Qatar-based television network said her colleagues at the scene, and other present, said the veteran reporter was shot by Israeli forces.

In a statement, Al Jazeera called on the international community to hold Israeli forces accountable for their “intentional targeting and killing” of Abu Akleh.

“In a blatant murder, violating international laws and norms, the Israeli occupation forces assassinated in cold blood Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Palestine,” it said.

An Israeli military statement said its troops had shot back after coming under “massive fire” in Jenin and that “there is a possibility, now being looked into, that reporters were hit – possibly by shots fired by Palestinian gunmen.”

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed Abu Akleh’s death and said a second reporter, al Jazeera producer Ali Samodi, was wounded.

In comments to Agence France-Presse, the Israel Defense Forces firmly denied that it had deliberately targeted.

Mourners next to the body of the al-Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. Photograph: Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, said he held the Israeli military fully responsible for her death. Qatar’s deputy foreign minister condemned the killing by the “Israeli occupation” on Twitter, calling for an end to “state sponsored Israeli terrorism.”

Violence has surged in Jenin in recent weeks: Israeli security forces have stepped up operations in the area after a spate of deadly terrorist attacks targeting Israelis that have left 19 people dead. Several of the attackers came from the Jenin area.

Three Arab-Israelis and 28 Palestinians have died, among them Abu Akleh, an unarmed woman and two apparent bystanders, as well as the perpetrators of attacks and Palestinian gunmen fighting with Israeli forces during raids.

Accompanying holy clash at Jerusalem’s al-Asqa mosque compound, a site to both Jews and Muslims at the heart of the conflict, have also raised fears of escalation between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in control of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has refrained from claiming responsibility for most of the terror attacks against Israelis, but in speeches leaders have praised the violence and called on Palestinians to carry out more, leading Israel to warn of retaliatory measures.

Israel and Hamas fought an 11-day-war last May, in part triggered by unrest at al Aqsa, in which 256 Gazans and 14 people died in Israel. Last year’s fighting was the third round of full-scale conflict between the Israeli state and the Palestinian militant group since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 and Israel and Egypt imposed a punishing blockade.

In April, UK-based lawyers with the International Federation of Journalists filed submissions to the International Criminal Court alleging a “systematic targeting of” by Israeli forces.

At least 144 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2018, citing the use of live fire and rubber bullets, as well as stun grenades, teargas, and beatings with batons.

The Gazan journalist Yaser Murtaja was the last journalist to be killed the conflict, shot by Israeli snipers during the bloody protests on the Gaza Strip border in 2018.

Abu Akleh was well known to millions across the Arab world for her reporting during the first and second intifadas, or uprisings, against the Israeli occupation since 1987.

“Shireen was a brave, kind, and high-integrity journalist that I and millions of Palestinians grew up watching,” prominent Ramallah-based activist Fadi Quran said in a tweet, calling her death “a devastating tragedy.”

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