Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau chief: Israeli forces targeted Abu Aqleh by ‘direct shot’
Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- Walid al-Omari, the Al Jazeera bureau chief in occupied Jerusalem, said it is clear the bullet that killed Abu Aqleh was shot by an Israeli sniper.
“The eyewitnesses told us the bullet was shot from where the Israeli occupation soldiers were located,” al-Omari said, according to Al Jazeera.
“It is a big shock because the journalists were in an open area that was away from [Israeli] military confrontation with Palestinian resistance,” he noted.
Earlier today, the Israeli forces shot and killed Al Jazeera’s veteran Arabic correspondent Shereen Abu Aqleh while she was covering a military raid in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
According to the Qatar-based news channel and the Palestinian Health Ministry, Abu Aqleh was shot in the head despite wearing a press vest.
The moment when Shereen Abu Aqleh, a key correspondent of the Al Jazeera TV in Palestine, was just shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces in Jenin refugee camp, north of the occupied West Bank, earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/zkZmI9OaIo
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 11, 2022
This is paid for by Western democratic countries who continue to support a Settler colonial racist project in Palestine. Her blood is on your hands. #ShireenAbuAqla pic.twitter.com/CmInLra5Hp
— Samar D Jarrah (@SamarDJarrah) May 11, 2022
She was rushed to Ibn Sina hospital in critical condition and was announced dead soon afterwards.
Another journalist identified as Ali Asmoadi who works for the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper was also shot in the back by Israeli live bullet during the same raid and he is in a stable condition.
Asmoadi and other journalists at the scene said there were no Palestinian fighters present when the journalists were shot, directly disputing an Israeli statement referencing the possibility that it was Palestinian fire.
“We were going to film the Israeli army operation and suddenly they shot us without asking us to leave or stop filming,” said al-Samoudi.
“The first bullet hit me and the second bullet hit Shireen … there was no Palestinian military resistance at all at the scene.”
Shatha Hanaysha, a local journalist who was standing next to Abu Aqleh when she was shot, also told Al Jazeera that there had been no confrontations between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli forces. She said the group of journalists had been directly targeted.
“We were four journalists, we were all wearing vests, all wearing helmets,” Hanaysha said. “The [Israeli] occupation army did not stop firing even after she collapsed. I couldn’t even extend my arm to pull her because of the shots being fired. The army was adamant on shooting to kill.”
Abu Aqleh, who was a dual Palestinian-American national, was one of Al Jazeera’s first field correspondents, joining the network in 1997.
