Published on 16 April 2008
17 December 2009 - Tit-for-tat arrests of journalists continue
13 November 2009 - Hamas bans press conferences in Gaza City
17 August 2009 - Journalists banned from Gaza Strip hospitals and Rafah until further notice
Fadel Shanaa, a Palestinian cameraman working for the British news agency Reuters, was killed today by a rocket fired during an Israeli military incursion into the Gaza Strip. His assistant Wafa Barbakh, was seriously injured.
“We offer our condolences to Fadel Shanaa’s family and friends,” Reporters Without Borders said. “His death serves as reminder that the Gaza Strip, the theatre of violence clashes between the Israel Defence Forces and Palestinian armed groups, is still one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists.”
The press freedom organisation added: “We call on the Israeli authorities to quickly investigate the circumstances that led to the Reuters cameraman’s death.”
Aged 25, Shanaa was the first journalist to be killed by the Israeli military since British independent filmmaker James Miller in May 2003.
Shanaa and Barbakh, who were filming an incursion by Israeli tanks near the Al-Barij refugee camp, were using a vehicle that was clearly marked with the word “Press” so that they would be identifiable as journalists. It was hit by an Israeli missile that presumably missed its intended target. Seriously injured, they were taken to Al-Aqsa hospital where Shanaa died.
Adel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by the pen name Kareem Amer, was arrested on 6 November 2006, for articles published on his blog .
