DOHA, Qatar
Qatar-based Al Jazeera television on Wednesday accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing its veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank.
Abu Akleh, 51, was shot dead while covering an Israeli raid in the city of Jenin. Another journalist, Ali Al-Samoudi, was shot in the back, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In a statement, the Doha-based channel said Abu Akleh was “assassinated in cold blood” by Israeli forces.
It termed the killing as a “heinous crime, which intends to only prevent the media from conducting their duty.”
“Al Jazeera holds the Israeli government and the occupation forces responsible for the killing of Shireen,” it said, going on to call on the international community “to condemn and hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for their intentional targeting and killing” of the reporter.
“We pledge to prosecute the perpetrators legally, no matter how hard they try to cover up their crime, and bring them to justice,” the channel vowed.
Abu Akleh was born in Jerusalem, in 1971, and holds a BA in journalism and media from Yarmouk University in Jordan.
* Writing by Ahmed Asmar
