Doha: A senior US official strongly condemned the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering Israeli raids in Jenin for the Al-Jazeera network and called for “immediate and thorough investigation”.
US Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price called her killing an affront to media freedom.
“We are heartbroken by and strongly condemn the killing of American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank. The investigation must be immediate and thorough and those responsible must be held accountable. Her death is an affront to media freedom everywhere,” he posted on Twitter.
Earlier, the US ambassador to Israel called for an investigation into the killing of Abu Akleh.
In a tweet, Tom Nides said he was "very sad” to learn of Shireen Abu Akleh’s death on Tuesday, and "encouraged” a probe of an incident in the West Bank city of Jenin that also injured at least one other journalist.
On Twitter, the US ambassador, wrote: "I encourage a thorough investigation into the circumstances of (Abu Akleh's) death and the injury of at least one other journalist today in Jenin."
Ali Samoodi, a Palestinian journalist wounded alongside Abu Akleh, said Israeli forces "suddenly opened fire" at them during the Jenin operation.
Treated for his wounds in a hospital in Jenin, Samoodi told reporters: "They (Israeli soldiers) didn’t ask us to leave and they didn’t ask us to stop (filming). They fired at us. One bullet hit me and another hit Shireen. They killed her in cold blood."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that he held the Israeli government fully responsible for Abu Akleh’s death, calling it a "heinous crime” and a result of "the occupation’s policy of targeting journalists to obscure the truth and commit crimes silently.”
Abu Akleh began working for Al Jazeera in 1997, according to the Associated Press, and regularly reported from across the Palestinian territories. In video footage of the incident, Abu Akleh can be seen wearing a blue flak jacket clearly marked with the word "PRESS,” the AP said.
