12 May 2022

Shot in the head while wearing a blue Press vest. Ms. Abu Aqleh, 51, trailblazing Palestinian journalist was killed in West Bank. A Palestinian American, Ms. Abu Aqleh, 51, one of the most well-known Palestinian journalists, reported for the Al Jazeera network, where she spent 25 years making her name amid the violence of the Palestinian uprising known as the second intifada, which convulsed Israel and the occupied West Bank beginning in 2000. In a video from the moments around her death, another journalist, identified by the network as Shatha Hanaysha and also wearing a vest marked “Press” and a helmet, crouches down and tries to reach out to Ms. Abu Aqleh. But she was forced back by gunfire. Ms. Hanaysha told Al Jazeera that there had not been any confrontations between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli army when the shots were fired toward the journalists, adding that she believed that they had been targeted. “We were four journalists — we were all wearing vests, all wearing helmets,” Ms. Hanaysha told Al Jazeera. Israeli forces, she said, “did not stop firing even after she collapsed. I couldn’t even extend my arm to pull her because of the shots. The army was adamant on shooting to kill.”


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