Al Jazeera says its journalist was 'shot dead by Israeli forces'

Al Jazeera reported today that Israeli forces "shot dead" a Palestinian journalist and wounded another while they were covering Israeli military raids in Jenin, West Bank. Shireen Abu Akleh, who reported for Al Jazeera, died in hospital soon after being shot. Ali Samoudi, who works for a Jerusalem daily, Quds, is in a stable condition.

The circumstances surrounding Abu Akleh’s death are not clear, but according to Al Jazeera’s West Bank correspondent Nida Ibrahim, she was shot in the head. “As you can imagine, this is a shock to the journalists who have been working with her,” Ibrahim said.

The Israeli military hasn’t yet made a statement on the journalist’s killing. The Israeli military earlier claimed that it retaliated when it came under attack during its operations in Jenin, but Walid al-Omary, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Ramallah, denied that Palestinian militants had carried out any attack.