Photojournalist Jihad Alqadi was busy covering clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces on 1 March 2013, when he got shot in the stomach by an Israeli soldier and sent to the hospital to undergo emergency surgery.
(MADA/IFEX) – The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the targeting of photojournalist Jihad Alqadi by the Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF) while he was covering the clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in front of Ofer Prison near Ramallah on the evening of 1 March 2013.
Alqadi (23-years-old) was shot in the stomach by an Israeli soldier’s bullet and is now badly injured as the bullet exited through his back, tearing his spleen and causing severe damage to his colon. He also sustained bruises to his lower breastbone. Alqadi had to undergo emergency surgery which lasted for about four and half hours.
Khaled Alqadi, the photojournalist’s brother who stayed with him at the Ramallah Government Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), reported to MADA that his brother’s condition is stable but that he must remain under supervision at the ICU. “My brother is still under the influence of the drug. It was a difficult surgery and doctors were forced to eradicate a piece of his colon.”
MADA wishes Alqadi a speedy recovery, and calls on the international community to intervene rapidly to protect Palestinian journalists from the systematic targeting carried out by the IOF.
