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Probe Clears IDF Tank Crew in Death of Gaza Journalist

[Ha'aretz] The Israel Defense Forces has closed an investigation into the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana in Gaza last April. The army found that troops acted properly when they opened fire. The shooting occurred on a day of clashes in which three Israeli soldiers and 20 Palestinians were killed. Earlier in the day, Israeli troops had come under fire from mortar shells, and a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a tank. Brig. Gen. Avihai Mandelblit, the army's top prosecutor, said in a letter that the tank commander sought permission to open fire after spotting a small group of people attaching an unidentified black object to a tripod and pointing it toward the tank. He also said Shana and Wafa Mizyed, a Reuters colleague wounded in the attack, were wearing body armor commonly used by Palestinian militants. "The tank crew's superiors, asked to authorize firing by the tank, reasonably concluded...that the characters identified by the tank were hostile, and posed a threat to the tank and its crew," he wrote.
2008-08-14 01:00:00
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