ALBAWABA - A producer in VICE magazine said that weeks before the killing of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the magazine was reporting in Jenin and caught a high-ranking IDF commander joking about killing journalists in Jenin.
According to the screenshots of footage provided by Lama Al-Arian, an International Producer cited the soldier while saying: "We should show them some action. With all the shooting, maybe they will be hit by a bullet".
"We caught a high-ranking IDF commander on hot mic entertaining the idea of facilitating us getting shot accidentally," Al-Arian said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"The IDF commander was talking to the IDF press officer in the back at the time the footage was filmed. I’m sure they didn’t expect us to translate all of the B-roll and go through the footage" Al-Arian added.
Abu Akleh, a longtime TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, was killed on May 11th, 2022 while covering Israeli army raids in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Her colleague Ali al-Samoudi, was also wounded by a bullet in the back.
“We were going to film the Israeli army operation and suddenly they shot us without asking us to leave or stop filming,” said al-Samoudi.
Palestinians say that Abu Akleh, a popular face for many across the Middle East, was targeted in the raid, allegedly to silence her. The journalist was outspoken on Israeli violations in the West Bank.
