Veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh killed in Israeli raid

The Al Jazeera journalist was covering an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp when she was shot in the face

Journalists and medics wheel the body of Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Al-Jazeera, into a morgue at a hospital in the West Bank town of Jenin on Wednesday May 11 2022 (Majdi Mohammed/AP)

A journalist for Al Jazeera has been shot dead while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.

The broadcaster and a reporter hurt in the incident blamed Israeli forces, who said they are investigating.

Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known Palestinian female reporter for the broadcaster’s Arabic language channel, died soon after being hit by a bullet.

Ali Samoudi, another Palestinian journalist, was hospitalised in a stable condition after being shot in the back.

The Qatar-based network interrupted its broadcast to announce Ms Abu Akleh’s death.

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”.

“We pledge to prosecute the perpetrators legally, no matter how hard they try to cover up their crime, and bring them to justice,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.

The Israeli military said its forces came under attack from 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”.

Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid said it has 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.

He said a first shot missed them, a second hit him, and a third killed Ms Abu Akleh.

He said there were no militants or other civilians in the area — only the reporters and the army.

He said the military’s suggestion they were shot by militants is a “complete lie”.

Shaza Hanaysheh, a reporter with a Palestinian news website who was also among the reporters, gave a similar account in an interview with Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel, saying there were no clashes or shooting in the immediate area.

She said when the shots rang out she and Ms Abu Akleh ran towards a tree to take shelter.

“I reached the tree before Shireen. She fell on the ground,” Ms Hanaysheh said.

“The soldiers did not stop shooting even after she fell. Every time I extended my hand to pull Shireen, the soldiers fired at us.”

Ran Kochav, an Israeli commander, told army radio the two journalists were standing alongside armed Palestinians.

He said the gunmen were “unprofessional people, terrorists, who were shooting at our troops”.

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.

Another journalist working for a local Gaza radio station, who was shot on the same day at Gaza frontier, died a week later.

In November 2018, 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 meters 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.