Senior Al Jazeera journalist killed during Israeli raid

Jerusalem: A veteran journalist working for Al Jazeera was killed on Wednesday during an Israeli operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, prompting the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Qatar-based network to blame the Israeli Army for her death.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 51-year-old Shireen Abu Aqla, a Jerusalem-based journalist for Al Jazeera, was hit in the head by live fire. A second reporter, Ali Samodi from Al-Quds newspaper sustained a gunshot wound to the back and is in stable condition, the ministry said.

The Israeli military denied that its forces targeted the journalists and called for a "joint pathological analysis and investigation" to establish the truth.

Israeli forces were operating in the Jenin refugee camp and several other areas of the West Bank to apprehend "terror suspects," the military said. According to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), the militants opened fire at the Israeli forces and hurled explosives at them during the raid, before the soldiers returned fire.

The IDF was looking into "a possibility, now being looked into, that reporters were hit possibly by shots fired by Palestinian gunmen", the Israeli army said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he holds Israeli forces "fully responsible" for Abu Aqla's death.

Al Jazeera said that she was killed "in cold blood," in what the network called a "horrifying crime that breaches international norms".

"We condemn this heinous crime, intended to prevent the media from carrying out its message, and we hold the Israeli government and the occupation forces responsible for her death, the channel wrote on Twitter.

"We call on the international community to condemn and hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for the deliberate killing of our colleague Shireen Abu Aqla," it said.

In footage from the scene, Abu Aqleh was seen wearing a PRESS vest and a helmet and was hit below the ear in an area not covered by her helmet.