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Palestinian authorities blame Al Jazeera reporter’s death on Israel

Earlier, reports of journalists allegedly suffering wounds in a shootout between Israeli troops and armed Palestinians in Jenin appeared

CAIRO, May 11. /TASS/. The Israeli leadership is fully responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a reporter for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV channel, the Palestinian Authority said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The Israeli government is fully responsible for this heinous crime that became a continuation of the occupation authorities’ everyday policy targeted against our people, their land and holy sites and aimed at persecuting journalists in order to hide the truth,'' the statement reads.

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported earlier that Shireen Abu Akleh had suffered a fatal wound to her head while covering an army raid in a refugee camp near Jenin in the West Bank, which had triggered armed clashes between soldiers and Palestinians. Al Jazeera producer Ali Al-Samoudi was also wounded in the incident and is said to be in stable condition. Both journalists were wearing press vests when they came under fire, the TV channel noted on Twitter.

The Israeli military said that reports of journalists allegedly suffering wounds in a shootout between Israeli troops and armed Palestinians in Jenin were under consideration. The army press service did not rule out that the journalists could have been wounded by Palestinian militants. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid stated that the Palestinian authorities had been offered to conduct a joint post-mortem probe into the Al Jazeera reporter’s death.