Al Jazeera journalist killed by Israeli forces in West Bank

An Al Jazeera journalist was killed on Wednesday by Israeli army fire in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

A ministry statement said Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, was shot in the city of Jenin.

Another journalist, Ali Al-Samoudi, was shot in the back, the ministry added.

Al-Samoudi said they had been with a group of journalists near Jenin camp when fired on. He also said all of them had been wearing helmets and bulletproof vests.

“We were directly targeted by the occupation forces,” he said in statements cited by the state news agency Wafa.

“The place where the journalists were present was clear to the occupation soldiers, and there were no armed men or clashes in that area,” Al-Samoudi said. “We were deliberately targeted.”

Reuters reported that earlier Wednesday, Israeli forces raided the city of Jenin to arrest a Palestinian, triggering clashes with angry residents.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it was “investigating” the Al Jazeera journalist’s death.

The army suggested that the Al Jazeera correspondent may have been shot by Palestinians as they clashed with Israeli forces, which “responded with fire, without causing any casualties,” Reuters reported.

Al-Jazeera TV network, for its part, said Abu Akleh was “one of the first generation of the channel’s field correspondents.”

“For a quarter of a century, Abu Akleh was at the center of danger to cover wars, attacks and aggressions of the Israeli occupation, against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories,” the Doha-based channel said.