Palestinian Authority Holds Israel Responsible for Shireen Abu Akleh Killing

Veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed while reporting on an Israeili army raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for Al Jazeera on Wednesday. The middle-east TV network says an Israeli force killed Abu Akleh. Another Palestinian journalist Ali al-Samoudi, who works for the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper, was wounded but in stable condition. 

51-year-old Abu Akleh was a US citizen and had been covering a military raid on the Jenin refugee camp, “when she was shot in the face by a single bullet, despite wearing a press vest, Al Jazeera said while adding the TV reporter for the network’s Arabic language channel had been “assassinated in cold blood” by the Israeli forces. Israel has raided the occupied West Bank in recent weeks amid a series of deadly attacks inside Israel.

#BREAKING: Israeli forces raid the family house of al-Jazeera's key correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh who was killed this morning by Israeli gunfire during an Israeli army assault in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. pic.twitter.com/dGMjMEvRVt

— Wafa News Agency - English (@WAFANewsEnglish) May 11, 2022

Denouncing the Abu Akleh’s killing as a “crime of execution,” the The Palestinian Authority presidency held the Israeli government fully responsible for this heinous crime. While the Israel Defense Forces said “it is investigating the event and looking into the possibility that journalists were hit by the Palestinian gunmen.” 

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The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh during an Israeili army raid is being widely condemned by the media organisations. The International Federation of Journalists condemned the killing and demanded an investigation. The Foreign Press Association in Israel and Palestine and Reporters Without Borders have also condemned the reporter’s killing.

This is a murder in cold blood by Israel. Shireen was one of those journalists who documented the everyday brutality by the Israeli forces for the world, a generation of viewers grew up watching her dogged reporting from Palestine. Will the world speak up ? #ShireenAbuAkleh pic.twitter.com/Dg9d3DmYUI

— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) May 11, 2022

Meanwhile, Israeli police have raided Abu Akleh’s residence in East Jerusalem and confiscated the Palestinian flags. Shireen Abu Akleh was seen as a voice of Palestinians. She had become a household name across the Arab world for her incisive coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.