(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of Defence Benyamin Ben Eliezer, RSF protested the shooting of Laïla Awda, Abu Dhabi TV correspondent in Ramallah. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked for the opening of “a full and impartial investigation to clarify the circumstances of this accident and to take the necessary disciplinary measures against those […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of Defence Benyamin Ben Eliezer, RSF protested the shooting of Laïla Awda, Abu Dhabi TV correspondent in Ramallah. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked for the opening of “a full and impartial investigation to clarify the circumstances of this accident and to take the necessary disciplinary measures against those responsible.” He also recalled that “since 28 September 2000, more than twenty journalists and photographers have been injured, sometimes seriously, while covering the Palestinian Intifada.” To date, RSF has received no explanation on the circumstances surrounding these incidents.
According to information collected by RSF, on 20 April 2001, Awda was interviewing persons in the Rafah area, whose houses had been destroyed by Israeli forces a few days earlier. While she and her team were about to leave, Israeli soldiers allegedly shot at them. Hit by a live bullet in the thigh, Awda was taken to Rafah hospital, then transferred to As Shifa hospital in Gaza. According to the journalist, she was deliberately targeted.
On 14 April, Zakaria Abu Harbeid, journalist with the local press agency Ramatan, was wounded in Khan Younes (in the Gaza Strip) while taking pictures of Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinians. Hit on his left hand, he had to be hospitalised for a few days.
On 9 February, Gamma agency photographer Laurent van der Stockt was seriously injured while covering young Palestinians’ demonstrations in Ramallah. The photographer was located about fifty metres from Israeli soldiers when he was shot in the knee. He was taken to a Jerusalem hospital before being repatriated to France.
