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Jenin
Residents Bury Their Journalist Under Israeli Re-Occupation
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Funeral
of the Palestinian freelance journalist killed by the Israeli
army |
JENIN,
July 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Jenin's residents buried
Saturday, July 13, Imad Abu Zahra, the second journalist to be killed
by the Israeli army in the past four months of the intifada, and their
governor complained of the effects of re-occupation.
On
Thursday, July 11, while the curfew was lifted on Jenin, Imad Abu
Zahra, 35, a freelance journalist and photographer, who also worked
for a Jerusalem-based magazine, was waiting for a taxi. With him was
Said Dahla, a photographer for the official Palestinian agency Wafa,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
At
3:00 pm (1200 GMT), Israeli tanks and armored vehicles suddenly
entered the crowded streets in the center of Jenin. One of the
vehicles stalled when it brought down an electricity pole, witnesses
said.
Most
of the crowd dispersed, but the journalists remained, along with one
handicapped youth that began throwing prunes, tomatoes and water-melon
at the armored vehicles.
The
Israelis opened fire with heavy machine guns, hitting Abu Zahra in the
thigh and Dahla in the shin.
"We
were 40 meters (yards) away. I had the time to take one picture. They
opened fire, but not spraying it, they aimed at us," said Dahla,
who left hospital Saturday.
A
witness to the shooting, Pete Blacker, a member of the International
Solidarity Movement, agreed: "The army opened fire first, on the
journalists. They were the only two men in that direction."
Blacker,
one of the peace activists present in Jenin, hurried to film the scene
when he heard the tanks coming. His film shows Dahla wearing a vest
marked clearly with the word "Press".
The
Israeli army claims after its vehicle stalled it was attacked by
youths throwing stones, fruits and petrol bombs, before militants
opened fire.
"There
was no Palestinian fire before the journalists were injured,"
Blacker, a British national, said.
Abu
Zahra, whose artery in his thigh was severed by an Israeli bullet,
quickly lost blood. No ambulance could reach the men, who were taken
to hospital half an hour later in a taxi. Abu Zahra arrived
unconscious. He died on Friday.
Since
mid-June, seven of eight main West Bank towns have been re-occupied
and placed under curfew.
The
army presence is unpredictable and dangerous, Jenin residents say.
"The
army enters the city and the (refugee) camp at any moment, during the
day, at night," complained Haidar Irshid, the governor of Jenin.
As
he spoke, the sound of tanks in the nearby valley shook the town.
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