Press Television News Saturday, April 19, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian witnesses said.
The military has denied it aims at reporters, but says it can not "guarantee the safety" of journalists. But journalists on the scene said the soldiers "shot directly at a group of reporters who were filming the army’s clashes Saturday with stone-throwing Palestinian youth."
The Associated Press Television News (APTN) Cameraman Nazeh Darwazeh, 45, was shot in the head and killed, The Associated Press (AP) and other news media said. Darwazeh was wearing a bright yellow vest which clearly marked with the word "Press."
Videotape taken by Reuters television shows a soldier kneeling beside the tank and pointing a rifle down the alley where the journalists were wearing fluorescent green bullet-proof vests that read, "Press," news reports said.
FOURTH REPORTER
Reporters Without Borders said 46 journalists, mostly Palestinian, have been wounded covering Israeli-Palestinian violence during the last two years. Darwazeh is the fourth newsman to be killed in the region since the Palestinian uprising re-erupted in 2000.
At least 17 Palestinians were wounded in Saturday’s clash, according to Palestinian hospital officials, quoted by news organizations. Darwazeh, a resident of Nablus, had worked for Associated Press Television News for two years, covering the clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Nablus. He is survived by his wife and five children.
PASSOVER TENSIONS
Tensions between the press and Israel’s army come amid heightened security as more Israelis than ever are said to take part in the Passover celebrations, in response to the way the Jewish holiday was overshadowed by Palestinian terrorism last year.
As Jewish families world-wide gathered on March 27 last year to share the Passover Seder, hundreds of guests were just sitting down to dinner in the banquet hall of the Park Hotel in Netanya when a suicide bomber detonated a hidden vest of explosives.
The powerful blast became known as the Passover Massacre as the festive occasion turned into a scene of carnage, killing 29 people and injuring over 100 others.
