Israeli soldiers shoot journalist in cold blood
Egyptian Information Minister Safwat el-Sherif condemned today the Israeli forces assault on the Nile News Channel crew in Ramallah while they were covering events in the wake of the Israeli storming of Bira and Ramallah.
The minister branded the attack on the journalists as barbaric and brutal.
This brazen act on the side of the Israeli forces is a flagrant breach of international conventions and a violation of the right of journalists accredited by the Israeli authorities, Sherif said.
He slammed the Israeli forces opening fire on a vehicle authorised to move inside Palestinian areas to cover the latest developments there.
Sherif protested to all human rights organisations and sent cables to Amnesty International and Journalists without Borders.
In an interview with MENA over the phone from Ramallah, the wife of Carlos Handal, the Nile News cameraman who was injured by the Israeli forces earlier in the day, described the condition of her husband as critical.
Shorouk As'aad, Handal's wife and the network correspondent, asserted that her husband was in coma in an intensive care unit in a Ramallah hospital.
On the injury of her husband, Asaad told MENA that Israeli soldiers suddenly opened fire at the Nile News van while they were covering the Israeli crimes in Ramallah. A bullet penetrated Handal's jaw and came out the other way, severing the main artery feeding the brain.
Handal lay bleeding, with the brutal Israeli soldiers banning ambulances from taking him to hospital, the Egyptian TV correspondent testified.
Ra'd el-Helw who was accompanying Handal had to carry him across the streets to the nearest hospital crying for help, she said, asserting that Handel's camera, which was still on, documented the whole thing.
The Israeli soldiers opened fire at the vehicle which carried Nile TV media badges on all sides to kill all inside to silence the voice of media, Shorouk As'aad said, asserting that the camera of the wounded Handal exposed the Israeli brutality.