A Palestinian medical source announced that journalist Shatha Al-Sabagh from the Jenin camp in the northern West Bank was killed after being hit with a gunshot to the head, during armed clashes between the security services of the Palestinian Authority and gunmen in the camp.
Both sides blame the killing of the twenty-year-old woman, a trained journalist, university student, and social media activist.
The Sabbagh family said that the security services shot Shatha from a point where they were stationed while she was leaving in front of her house, and that security personnel opened fire on some residents who tried to help the journalist Shatha, according to her family.
On the other hand, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security forces said that the security forces were not present at the scene of the journalist’s killing in Jenin, according to investigations.
The Palestinian security services said in a statement that they “condemn in the strongest terms the heinous crime committed by outlaws (…) inside the Jenin camp, which resulted in the death of journalist Shatha Sabbagh after she was shot in the head.”
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate mourned the murdered woman and demanded the formation of an independent investigation committee that includes a representative of the syndicate to clarify the circumstances of what happened.
The killing of the journalist came hours after the killing of an officer from the Palestinian security services during clashes with Palestinian militants. A spokesman for the security services mourned the dead man and said that he died during the ongoing operation in the Jenin camp, which has been continuing for 3 weeks.
With the killing of Al-Sabagh, the death toll from the ongoing clashes since December 5th rises to 11 dead: 5 security personnel and 6 civilians.
The Palestinian Authority says that it is pursuing “outlaws” in the Jenin camp, while Palestinian factions accuse it of “pursuing the resistance.”