Shireen Abu Akleh

Tributes paid to Al Jazeera journalist and authority on Israeli-Palestinian conflict who has been shot in West Bank.

The US ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, said he was “very sad” to learn of Abu Akleh’s death. She is a reference in the Arab world. Everyone in the street would stop and salute her for her courage and determination and unique way of telling the stories of Palestinians. Arabs cannot go to Palestine. Shireen took them there.”

We lost yet another revered Palestinian icon to the Israeli occupation.

All who knew her would speak fondly of her amazing spirit, her open heart, and her exemplary courage and professionalism in the line of duty. She was one of the first, who inspired a whole new generation of journalists to tell the story of Palestine, and over the years she always remained one of the most dedicated to the job. I was shy and felt embarrassed, but I still remember how she greeted me, speaking gently to a seven-year-old who wanted to grow up to be a brave journalist like her and my father. One day, I had insisted on joining my father, who was also a journalist, in visiting al-Muqata’a, the headquarters of the late Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. She had a grandstanding in the local journalistic community. I felt safe in her presence. She spoke from Palestine, and was heard by the entire world. She was a hero to me. For me, she was much, much more than a professional role model. It was a notification from a Telegram channel called “Martyrs of Palestine”. I wasn’t shocked. She was loved and respected by all. Shireen Abu Akleh was an icon in Palestine and the Arab world.

Earlier today, Israeli forces killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in cold blood. Tragically, it's nothing new for Israel, which has made a ...

That the Nakba was not a single moment in history, but rather constitutes an ongoing process of violence and displacement, is the fact Israeli forces are trying — and failing — to hide. “I chose journalism to be close to the people,” Shireen Abu Akleh previously said. Last week, Israel’s high court green-lit the eviction of one thousand Palestinians from Masafer Yatta, a rural area of the South Hebron Hills home to several small Palestinian villages. Therein lies the goal: stifling the documentation of the ethnic cleansing and systematic oppression in which the Israeli forces are engaged, so that it can proceed with minimal awareness raised and zero accountability faced. In fact, one year ago this week, during Israel’s relentless pummelling of the Gaza Strip, Israeli jets flattened a building containing the offices of news organizations including Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Just last month, a formal complaint was lodged with the International Criminal Court by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) regarding Israel’s “systematic targeting” of Palestinian journalists.

Shireen Abu Akleh from the Qatar-based network is killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. Israel's Foreign Minister is proposing a joint ...

A Palestinian journalist in Gaza was shot and killed by Israeli forces while filming violent protests along the Gaza frontier in 2018. He said the military's suggestion that they were shot by militants was a "complete lie". The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security matters, condemned what it said was a "shocking crime" committed by Israeli forces. Israeli officials said there was video footage of Palestinian gunmen boasting that they had killed a soldier, but that no Israelis were wounded in the incident, indicating they shot a journalist. The military said it is "investigating the event and looking into the possibility that the journalists were hit by the Palestinian gunmen". A journalist for Al Jazeera was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin early on Wednesday.

Israeli forces shot Abu Akleh in the head while she was on assignment in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

“In disbelief,” wrote Salem Barahmeh, a Palestinian activist. Shireen was most prominent Palestinian journalist and a close friend. Shireen was a message throughout all her journalistic life, and even in her martyrdom, she is a message,” Rinawi told Al Jazeera. “Israeli occupation forces assassinated our beloved journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering their brutality in Jenin this morning. Israeli occupation forces assassinated our beloved journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering their brutality in Jenin this morning. The Israeli military said its soldiers had come under attack with heavy gunfire and explosives while operating in Jenin, and that they fired back. “The killing was deliberate… “What we know for now is that the Palestinian health ministry has announced her death. On the way there – I will bring you news as soon as the picture becomes clear.” It is a crime, it is all clear – intentional and direct targeting. He said that her body was transferred for an autopsy based on an order from the public prosecution. She said the group of journalists had been directly targeted.

Shireen Abu Akleh covered occupied Palestine for two decades. She was killed doing her job.

“This underlying daily reality of apartheid and the cold violence of structural repression leads to the hot violence of bloodshed and the killing of Palestinians.” Israel tends to stretch out the investigations as long as possible and in the end fails to hold military leaders to account, according to El-Ad. “Israel treats every incident as an extraordinarily exceptional occurrence, and the investigations always push the responsibility down to the lowest level of soldiers,” he told me. The Israeli foreign ministry shared a video of Palestinian gunmen active in the city Wednesday to back up these claims. Israel has even designated the premier Palestinian rights organization Al-Haq as a terrorist organization, in what experts called retribution for Al-Haq’s documentation of violations on the ground. “Without a serious investigation, we will not reach the truth.” That likely has something to do with the Israeli government not having a good track record of investigating its own crimes. Ali Samoudi, her producer, who was also shot and is currently in the hospital, said Israeli forces shot her. Israeli military spokesperson Ran Kochav said, “They’re armed with cameras, if you’ll permit me to say so,” and in so doing drew a not-subtle comparison between the work of journalism and that of violence. “It fits a pattern, a pattern of unlawful killing, and also a pattern of targeting journalists and human rights defenders.” Israel attributed Abu Akleh’s death to Palestinian gunmen, saying she was caught in the crossfire of clashes. According to the Associated Press, she was brought to the hospital, where she died. For over two decades, journalist Shireen Abu Akleh covered human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory.