In Israel and the Occupied Territories, Palestinian journalists and Israeli human rights groups are joining to condemn an Israeli decision not to prosecute soldiers involved in the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana and eight Palestinian youths. The twenty-four-year-old Shana died on April 16th in Gaza when an Israeli tank shelled his vehicle clearly marked “press.” Shana’s final piece of footage shows the tank firing a shell just before the camera went black. The other eight victims were aged between twelve and twenty years old. Reuters correspondent Nidal al-Mughrabi said the decision is being feared as an endorsement of future attacks.

Nidal al-Mughrabi: “The Israeli report on the killing of Fadel has grown fears among Palestinian journalists covering the conflict with Israel in the Gaza…between the Palestinians and the Israelis in the Gaza Strip, about the mission, you know, the mission to cover and to film. And we have been hearing from all other colleagues that they are not certain, they are not sure, about their lives anymore after such a report, which makes clear that the mere raising of a camera in the street, in a refugee camp or near the border can put someone’s life in danger.”

Meanwhile, in Israel, Jessica Montell, director of the Israeli human rights group B’tselem, said Israel had used illegal weapons in the attack.

Jessica Montell: “In this incident on April 16th, six civilians were killed by flechette darts, a weapon that is illegal, that should not be being used in these conditions in the Gaza Strip, and one of the six was a journalist. For all of these reasons, I would have expected the army to have opened and conducted a very thorough investigation into this case, and they chose not to do so. The lack of accountability in this case is reflected in the lack of accountability for thousands of Palestinians who have been killed in the
Occupied Territories.”