Reuters cameraman in Gaza shoots own death

A medical examination showed that a Reuters cameraman killed in Gaza Strip on Wednesday had died of wounds sustained from metal darts from an Israeli tank shell that exploded in the air.

Video footage from Fadel Shana’s camera showed the tank opening fire. Two seconds after the shot raises dust around its gun, the tape goes blank — seemingly at the moment Shana was hit.

A frame-by-frame examination of the tape shows the shell exploding in the air and dark shapes shooting out from it.

X-rays displayed by physicians who examined the body of Shana in Gaza’s Shifa hospital showed several of the controversial weapons, known as flechettes, embedded in the 23-year-old Palestinian’s chest and legs.

Several of the 3 cm -long darts were also found in Shana’s flak jacket, emblazoned with a florescent “Press” sign, and in his vehicle, an unarmoured sport utility vehicle bearing “TV” and “Press” markings.

Shana was covering events in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for Reuters on a day of intense violence when 16 other Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were also killed.

“The evidence from the medical examination underlines the importance of a swift, honest and impartial investigation by the Israel Defense Forces and by the government,” said David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Reuters News.

“The markings on Fadel Shana’s vehicle showed clearly and unambiguously that he was a professional journalist doing his duty. We and the military must work together urgently to understand why this tragedy took place and how similar incidents can be avoided in the future,” Schlesinger added.

Several hundred people, mainly local journalists, marched in Shana’s funeral procession on Thursday. His body was draped in a Palestinian flag and his shattered camera and flak jacket were borne aloft on a separate stretcher.

Asked about the information that an Israeli flechette shell had killed Shana, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: “The Israel Defence Forces do not, as a rule, comment on the weapons they use. But its weapons are legal under international law.

Rejecting a petition in 2003 by Israel’s Physicians for Human Rights and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the court said a 1980 UN convention on restricting the use of conventional weapons that cause excessive injury did not prohibit those with “sub-ammunition such as flechette shells”.