The Qatari channel said the 51-year-old reporter was killed “deliberately” and “in cold blood” by Israeli forces, but the country’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, said she was “probably” killed by Palestinian gunfire.
Abu Akleh, a Christian Palestinian who was also an American citizen, was a leading figure in the network’s Arabic service.
Another Al Jazeera journalist, producer Ali Al Samudi, was injured in the same incident.
An AFP photographer at the scene confirmed that Abu Akleh was wearing a press vest when he was shot.
The photographer said that Israeli forces were firing in the area and that he saw the body of the Al Jazeera reporter on the ground.
The Israeli army confirmed that it carried out an operation Wednesday morning in the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups in the northern occupied West Bank, but denied shooting journalists.
The army assured that there was an exchange of shots between suspects and the security forces, and that it is “investigating the incident and seeing the possibility that the journalists were attacked by armed Palestinians.”
The Al Jazeera producer who was injured, Samudi, said there were no armed Palestinians in the area when his partner was killed.
Al Jazeera called on the international community to hold Israel responsible for the “intentional” death of the journalist.
“In a flagrant murder that violates international laws and norms, the Israeli occupation forces murdered in cold blood the Al Jazeera correspondent in the Palestinian territories,” the television said.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Yair Lapidassured that his country wanted to join an “investigation into the sad death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.”
“Journalists must be protected in conflict zones and we have a responsibility to get to the truth,” he added.
US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides tweeted that he was “very saddened by the death of American and Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh” and called for “a full investigation into the circumstances of his death“.
Qatari Foreign Minister Lolwah Al Khater said on Twitter that the correspondent was shot “in the face” and called the act “Israeli state terrorism.”
For its part, the Palestinian Authority described the journalist’s death as an “execution” and as part of the Israeli effort to hide the “truth” of its occupation of the West Bank.
Likewise, a Hamas charge described the act as a “premeditated murder”.
Abu Akleh’s death comes almost a year after an Israeli airstrike destroyed the building in Loop where the offices of Al Jazeera and the AP news agency were located.
Israel said at the time that the tower housed offices of key members of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, territory under an Israeli blockade.
In another fact, A Palestinian youth was shot dead by the Israeli army on Wednesday. in the occupied West Bank, reported the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Thaer Khalil Al Yazuri, 18, died after being shot in the heart in the city of Al Birah, near Ramallah, the ministry said in a short statement. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army reported clashes between and Palestinians and soldiers who “fired rubber bullets”.
Source: Ambito
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