ROME, March 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) –As the body of an Italian photographer who was intentionally killed by Israeli gunfire when covering the army's occupation of the West Bank city of Ramallah was repatriated early Thursday March 14, the international community expressed its anger.

Raffaele Ciriello's remains were flown back to Linate airport in Milan aboard an Italian military plane accompanied by his wife, a representative of the Italian foreign ministry and of Corriere della Sera, the newspaper he was working for at the time he was shot by an Israeli tank, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

His killing sparked anger among newspaper commentators in Italy who charged he was targeted intentionally. "It is difficult not to think that this burst of machinegun fire against Raffaele Ciriello was intended to stop him working," the Rome daily Il Messaggero said in an editorial."The eyes of photojournalists and television cameramen are unforgiving," it said.

La Stampa, published in Turin, said Ciriello was a level-headed and careful member of the foreign news corps and not given to taking risks. "We had the impression that inside (the tank) someone had taken his time aiming," Amedeo Ricucci, a reporter from Italy's state television RAI, told the newspaper.

He was near Ciriello when he was shot early Wednesday in a Ramallah street. Ciriello had complained in a radio interview of being pinned down when Israeli gunfire targeted journalists the day before his death. Ciriello was hit in the chest and stomach by six bullets fired from a tank-mounted machine-gun, according to hospital sources.

Italy's foreign ministry called in the Israeli ambassador to Rome, Ehud Gol, late Wednesday to seek a full explanation of the shooting.

The International Press Institute (IPI) blasted the Israeli occupation army for attacking a number of journalists covering the conflict in the Palestinian territories, and killing Ciriello, AFP reported.

Writing to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, IPI head Johann Fritz rapped the occupation army for killing and injuring journalists, confiscating an Abu Dhabi television van and attacking production offices known to be occupied by journalists with machine gun fire.

He accused the Israeli occupation army of a "concerted strategy ... to control reports on the recent surge in armed hostilities in the region" of the West Bank town of Ramallah, scene of the Israeli occupation army's largest military operation since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, launched Tuesday, March 12, and of acting "with a criminal disregard for civilian lives".

Tareq Abdel Jaber, the Jerusalem-based correspondent of Egyptian national television, was wounded later Wednesday when two Israeli bullets hit him in the left side, piercing the bullet-proof vest he was wearing. A French freelance photographer, who asked not to be named, was also wounded in the leg by Israeli fire.

Tareq Abdel Jaber told CPJ that he and his cameraman were driving on a main street in Ramallah when their car, which was clearly identified as a press vehicle, came under attack by Israeli gunfire. There was no fighting taking place in the area at the time, Abdel Jaber said. Bullets penetrated the car and struck his flak jacket.

This is not the first time that Israelis kill a journalist while working. IslamOnline’s own correspondent Mohamed El Bishawi, 28, was killed by Israeli occupation forces while preparing a report for the site on the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

The U.S. administration even expressed its deep concern of the latest Israeli violence against journalists in the occupied territories. "We find the shooting death of an Italian journalist, the wounding of a French journalist by Israeli defense forces troubling," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Wednesday.

"We've had Israeli Defense Force actions and a high number of casualties produced on humanitarian workers, Red Cross/Red Crescent officials, ambulances, hospitals, individuals attempting to transit checkpoints for urgent humanitarian reasons," Boucher said.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, pointed out to the “lack of respect in the army for the life of civilians when it is carrying out operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” and condemned Ciriello’s death.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourned the killing of the Italian photographer on its homepage. "Whatever the circumstances of this tragic incident, Israel should provide a full accounting of what happened and bring anyone found guilty of wrongdoing to justice," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper.

Hossam Abu El-Magd a free-lance cameraman who has been covering the events in the occupied territories from 2000-2001, told IslamOnline that the Israeli aggression and violence against journalists there is “unacceptable and crazy.”

“They should have more respect to journalists. Don’t they know what it feels like for the families of these journalists when they are watching the television and see what is happening to their loved ones,” Abu El-Magd added.

Abu El-Magd told IslamOnline that his colleagues who have been covering the events in the occupied territories “were kicked and slapped.” He even pointed out to an incident whereby one of the reporters shooting for the Egyptian television was severely beaten up by Israelis. “Israelis don’t differentiate between Arab or foreign journalists. Even the CNN’s Cairo bureau chief, Ben Wedeman was shot at,” he added.

Israelis shot Wedeman on October 31, 2000. He was hit in the lower back by a live round at the Karni border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

IslamOnline talked to Ben Wedeman himself who is currently in the West Bank. Regarding the killing of the Italian free-lance photographer and the shooting at the Egyptian reporter, Wedeman said, “we are all here very upset here because these are our colleagues who are just doing their job. Tarek is a personal friend of mine and I was extremely upset. It’s becoming very dangerous here for journalists in Ramallah.”

“The foreign correspondent association in Jerusalem protested to the Israeli government but it did nothing,” Wedeman told IslamOnline. He said that this is not the first complaint of its kind whereby Reporters Without Frontiers had done the same but “the Israeli government just didn’t listen”.

“Now there are a lot of journalists in Ramallah and everyone is in clearly marked or armored cars. Journalists are also wearing jackets, which are also marked. But it's hard to get around the city and we have to ask people on the street where the Israelis are before we go anywhere because the situation is very dangerous,” Wedeman told IslamOnline.

With additional reporting by Dalia Sheiha