“I will provide you with the details of the news shortly”… This is the last statement that Shireen Abu Aqleh, a Palestinian journalist, sent to the newsroom.
But in a tragic moment “she” became the news…

Shireen was assassinated by an Israeli bullet in the head in the square she loved, while covering for Al-Jazeera the Israeli occupation army’s storming of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli occupation tried to blame the shooting on what it described as Palestinian militants, but the testimonies of journalists who were in the field, including Shireen’s colleague, who was shot in the back, belied the Israeli allegations.

Like a thunderbolt, the news of Shireen’s assassination descended on her family, colleagues, and fellow journalists throughout the Arab world. Everyone who knew her personally or followed her professional and experienced field coverage, rushed to publish her photos on social media, accompanied by expressions of condolence, anger and condemnation. Abu Aqila’s liquidation also sparked a wave of Arab and international condemnation that demanded an immediate and transparent investigation that would reveal the circumstances of this heinous crime.

In turn, Bahaa Hariri, in a tweet via Twitter, condemned the killing of Al-Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Aqleh, who was shot dead, the Israeli occupation while carrying out her professional duty. He added, “The Arab media today lost a journalist who for 20 years has been reporting the suffering and struggle of the Palestinian people to the whole world.”

For its part, Sawt Beirut International platform condemned the heinous crime and offered its deepest condolences from the family of the late colleague and from the Al Jazeera Foundation, it also affirmed the calls that demanded the international community and its political and human rights institutions to hold this occupying entity accountable for its crime and to expedite taking executive steps capable of protecting media professionals and the Palestinian people from the Israeli killing machine. The platform called on the International Federation of Journalists and all human rights organizations in the Arab and Western worlds to file cases against the occupied government of Israel before international courts.

Shireen Abu Aqleh hails from Bethlehem, but she was born and raised in the occupied city of Jerusalem, until she was martyred at the age of fifty-one in Jenin… There is no doubt that she will leave a void in the journalistic field work, which will be missed by her as well as the Palestinian cause, which accompanied its details until the last breath through her work in a large number of Palestinian, Arab and international media institutions.

Shireen joined today a long list of dozens of Palestinian journalists who have been reached by the hand of Israeli criminality… Is there anyone who can stop this killing machine and put an end to the systematic executions against Palestinians in general and journalists in particular?