Spain condemns 'death' of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spain on Wednesday "firmly condemns the death" of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

The "serious incidents" related to Abu Akleh's death must be "investigated and clarified," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, calling also for the "freedom of the press and the work of journalists to be respected."

The Palestinian Health Ministry had said earlier in the day that Abu Akleh was shot dead while covering an Israeli raid in the Palestinian city of Jenin.

Another journalist, Ali Al-Samoudi, was also shot during the attack.

The statement by Spain's Foreign Ministry did not name the Israeli government.

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera network accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing its veteran journalist Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank.

"I met Shireen Abu Akleh years ago in the West Bank. An entire generation followed her reports," wrote Spanish journalist Olga Rodriguez Francisco, who penned an obituary for Abu Akleh in Spanish daily El Diario.

"It has never been easy to be a journalist in conflict zones, where reporters are often targeted. Even more difficult is being a Palestinian reporter in a land occupied by Israeli troops," she wrote.

Monica Garcia, the opposition leader in the Madrid regional government, also blamed Israel for the attack.

"I'm appalled by the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh at the hands of a soldier of the Israeli army. Another attack on human rights and press freedom that cannot go unpunished," she wrote on Twitter.