Akleh was hit by a live bullet while covering Israeli raids in the refugee camps of the Palestinian city Jenin
An Al Jazeera correspondent has been shot dead by Israeli forces while covering a raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin, her broadcaster said.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known Palestinian female reporter, was shot and died soon after, according to Palestinian health officials. Another journalist, working for the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper, was also shot and wounded in the incident.
The Israeli military disputed that its forces had shot the two journalists. It said Israeli soldiers came under attack with heavy gunfire and explosives while operating in Jenin, and that they fired back. The military said it is “investigating the event and looking into the possibility that the journalists were hit by the Palestinian gunmen”.
Abu Akleh was in Jenin covering Israeli raids on Palestinian refugee camps there. Several other journalists were also on the scene and they escorted Akleh to hospital in critical condition, Palestinian health ministry officials said, where she was later pronounced dead.
An Al Jazeera report said the exact circumstances around Abu Akleh’s death remained unclear but that it appeared she had been shot in the head, according to fellow journalist Nida Ibrahim.