Photographer tells of Israeli killing of journalist
As residents in the West Bank town Jenin's buried Mr Imad Abu Zahra, the second journalist to be killed in the past four months…
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The Irish Times
As residents in the West Bank town Jenin's buried Mr Imad Abu Zahra, the second journalist to be killed in the past four months of the intifada, his colleague told of how Mr Zahra was the victim of indiscriminate shooting by the Israeli military.

On Thursday, while the curfew was lifted on Jenin, Mr 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 Mr Said Dahla, a photographer for the official Palestinian agency Wafa.

Israeli tanks and armored vehicles suddenly entered the crowded streets in the center of teh town. 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 even a water-melon at the armored vehicles.

The Israelis then opened fire with heavy machine guns, hitting Mr Abu Zahra in the thigh and Mr Dahla in the shin. Mr Abu Zahra died from blood-loss after the bullet severed an artery.

"We were 40 meters away. I had the time to take one picture. They opened fire, but not spraying it, they aimed at us," said Mr Dahla, who left hospital today.

A witness to the shooting, Mr 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."

Mr Blacker, one of the peace activists present in Jenin, hurried to film the scene when he heard the tanks coming. His film shows Mr Dahla wearing a vest marked clearly with the word "Press".

The Israeli army said 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," Mr Blacker, a British national, said.

"Maybe the soldiers panicked when they saw themselves stuck at the electric pole and they fired," Mr Blacker explained. "Maybe they were searching for militants and shot out of frustration", Mr Dahla said.

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 or night," says Mr Haidar Irshid, the governor of Jenin.