The Al-Jazeera channel has lost an emblematic figure. Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, was killed on Wednesday morning while covering an Israeli military operation in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. According to several testimonies, it was a sniper shot that hit the journalist in the head, causing her death at the hospital where she had been transported. The Israeli army, which is accused by several parties, claims to have opened an investigation after these clashes described as « massive ».
While France « required » only one investigation be conductedfranceinfo returns to the circumstances of the death of this seasoned reporter.
The journalist was covering a particularly sensitive operation
A journalist for Al-Jazeera since the early 2000s, Shireen Abu Akleh reported on an Israeli army operation in the Jenin area, stronghold of Palestinian armed factions in the northern occupied West Bank. The Jenin refugee camp is frequently raided by the Israeli army, which suspects its inhabitants of harboring fighters and concealing weapons.
On Wednesday morning, it was to cover an operation of this type that Shireen Abu Akleh first went to the Jabriyat district, west of Jenin. « Occupation forces invade Jenin and besiege a house… wrote the journalist at 6:14 a.m. (local time) in her last email, reported by Al-Jazeera*. I’m on my way, I’ll send you information as soon as it becomes clearer. » On Twitter, the Israeli army said that the operation in question was intended to “apprehend suspected terrorists in Jenin refugee camp”adding that his soldiers had been subjected to « massive shots » and jets « explosive devices ».
She wore a « press » vest and a helmet
Several videos and photos circulating on social networks, which franceinfo has been able to verify, show that Shireen Abu Akleh was wearing a « press » protective vest and a helmet when she was shot. According to colleagues of the reporter present at the time of the events, Shireen Abu Akleh was hit by a single shot, which struck her at the level of the temple, « just above the ear », reported the journalist Moujahid Al-Saadi. On one of the videos shot by witnesses, we can see the journalist, unconscious and injured in the head, being hastily installed in a vehicle. His death was found on arrival at Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin.
The death of Shireen Abu Akleh while carrying out her work as a journalist provoked outrage from many organizations and political figures. « I strongly condemn the killing of the Al-Jazeera reporter… who was shot with live ammunition while covering an operation by the Israeli security forces… », wrote on Twitter* the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland. The Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire, meanwhile, described the death of the Palestinian journalist « a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions, which require that civilians be protected, and of Security Council Resolution 2222 on the protection of journalists ».
Israeli army denies responsibility for fatal shooting
The exact circumstances of the Al-Jazeera journalist’s death are the subject of intense debate between the Israeli authorities and witnesses to the scene. On the one hand, the country’s Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, said on Twitter (link in Hebrew) as it seemed to him « probable that armed Palestinians, who opened fire indiscriminately at this time, were responsible for the unfortunate death of the journalist ». A hypothesis that we also find on the side of the Israeli army, which said to study « the possibility that journalists have been hit by Palestinian gunmen ».
But the hypothesis of a stray bullet during clashes between Palestinians and Israelis is formally rejected by the witnesses. « We were four journalists in an open area, there was no confrontation or shooting from Palestinian fighters », told Al-Jazeera * the Palestinian journalist Shatha Hanaysha, who rather evokes sniper fire in the direction of the group. Several witnesses also insist that Shireen Abu Akleh was standing in front of a wall, with no one behind her, when she was shot. A description that seems to match the videos taken just after the fatal shooting.
Hours after Shireen Abu Akleh’s death, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said that Israel had offered the Palestinians a « joint pathological investigation » on the « sad death of the journalist ». Before adding, on Twitter*, that the Israeli security forces “will continue to intervene where necessary, to prevent terrorism and the killing of Israelis”. « Appalled »Ie Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for his part demanded* an independent investigation into the circumstances of the journalist’s death.
* Links followed by an asterisk are in English.