Reporter shot in head during Israeli raid in West Bank; 'assassination in cold blood', says Al Jazeera
Zee News
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 51-year-old Shireen Abu Aqla, a Jerusalem-based journalist for Al Jazeera, was hit in the head by live fire.
Jerusalem: A veteran journalist working for Al Jazeera was killed on Wednesday during an Israeli operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, prompting the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Qatar-based network to blame the Israeli Army for her death.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 51-year-old Shireen Abu Aqla, a Jerusalem-based journalist for Al Jazeera, was hit in the head by live fire. A second reporter, Ali Samodi from Al-Quds newspaper sustained a gunshot wound to the back and is in stable condition, the ministry said.
The Israeli military denied that its forces targeted the journalists and called for a "joint pathological analysis and investigation" to establish the truth. Israeli forces were operating in the Jenin refugee camp and several other areas of the West Bank to apprehend "terror suspects," the military said.
According to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), the militants opened fire at the Israeli forces and hurled explosives at them during the raid, before the soldiers returned fire.
The IDF was looking into "a possibility, now being looked into, that reporters were hit’’ possibly by shots fired by Palestinian gunmen", the Israeli army said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he holds Israeli forces "fully responsible" for Abu Aqla's death.
