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Reuters attack toll now six
20/04/2008 18:05 - (SA)
Gaza - Two Palestinian teenagers died on Sunday of wounds in an apparent Israeli attack that killed a Reuters cameraman in the Gaza Strip last week, raising the total death toll to six, said medics.
Hospital officials named the pair as Ahmed al-Najar, 17, and
Bilal al-Dhaimi, 16.
They were wounded when one or more missiles apparently fired by an Israeli tank sprayed cameraman Fadel Shana with tiny darts as he was filming on Wednesday.
Human rights activists and local residents have given the ages of three men and youths killed instantly alongside Shana as between 13 and 22.
Reuters has demanded an urgent inquiry from the Israeli military which has expressed regret, but has not yet confirmed that its tank, seen firing in the final seconds of Shana's surviving video, delivered the fatal round or rounds.
Car clearly marked Press
Shana's body armour, which bore a blue-on-white "PRESS" marking, was ripped off by the attack, which medical examination showed had thrust several 38mm metal darts through his neck, shredding his flesh and severing his spine.
He was filming a panoramic view of an area where an Israeli air strike earlier had killed several people at a spot about 1.5km from where he was standing. Next to him was his car, a sport utility vehicle bearing "TV" and "Press" markings.
A tank about 1.5km away was also visible in his film. It fired a shell which exploded in mid-air, consistent with rounds designed to spray people with darts, known to the military as flechettes. Moments after that explosion, the camera stopped.
The Israeli army has defended its use of flechettes, noting that the Israeli Supreme Court turned down a petition to ban their use as a danger to civilian bystanders.
The attack that killed Shana and the five others came on a day of particular violence in the Hamas Islamist-controlled enclave.
Nearly 20 Palestinians were killed, many of them civilians, after militants killed three Israeli soldiers early in the day.
Shana's soundman, Wafa Abu Mizyed, 25, was wounded in the wrist by a dart. Shana, who had worked for the international news agency for several years, had just turned 24.
Israel, which withdrew troops from Gaza in 2005, regularly launches raids into the enclave. It says these target militants who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state.
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