Reuters said that one of its cameramen who was killed in the Gaza Strip was hit by an Israeli tank shell.
Fadel Shana died along with two other Palestinian civilians Wednesday as he tried to film fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas gunmen in central Gaza.
Footage from Shana’s camera showed an Israeli tank firing a shell in his direction before the image went blank.
Reuters reported Thursday that a Palestinian autopsy had determined Shana suffered injuries consistent with the deadly darts scattered by “flechette” tank shells.
Israeli military officials voiced remorse for the journalist’s death but noted that he had been working in a war zone. There was no immediate word from the military on whether the incident would be investigated.
The Palestinian Authority called off a plan to honor five terrorists jailed in Israel.
On Thursday, relatives of five Palestinians serving lengthy prison terms in Israel for terrorist outrages were to have received the Jerusalem Medal — the highest honor that can be bestowed by Mahmoud Abbas’ administration.
Abbas, who was abroad, had no comment, but unnamed aides told Israeli media Wednesday that the awarding of the prize was a “humanitarian gesture.”
The reports provoked outrage in Jerusalem. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s office said she raised the “grave and problematical issues arising from this” with visiting U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.
On Wednesday evening, the Palestinian Authority announced that the ceremony had been postponed.
Among the slated recipients were Amana Muna, who lured an Israeli teenager to his death with the promise of sex in 2001, and Ahlam Tamimi, who helped a Hamas suicide bomber kill 15 people at Jerusalem’s Sbarro pizzeria that year.
France’s central Jewish agency marked its 200th anniversary.
Tuesday’s celebration for Le Consistoire at the Great Synagogue of Victory Square, the central synagogue of Paris, featured a speech by Prime Minister Francois Fillon — the first time a standing prime minister spoke officially in a synagogue.
“There is nothing in the future of France that should worry the Jews of this country,” Fillon told a crowd of several hundred that included community notables, leaders of the Catholic and Protestant churches, the Muslim rector and members of the Jewish community. “We are constructing our future together.”
Le Consistoire, created by Napoleon to administer France’s Jewish community, is the oldest and largest Jewish institution in Europe. Its chief rabbis and member synagogues organize and conduct all religious aspects of the community.
“We transmit our values to our children and community as citizens of France,” Le Consistoire President Joel Mergui said.
“The Consistoire is the original model of a link between the state and its Jewish citizens,” said David de Rothschild, sitting in the front row of the synagogue alongside his cousin Eric de Rothschild.
The Rothschild family was present at the founding in 1808.
Grand Rabbi David Messas said the structure was a symbol of integration of French Jews.
“And integration does not mean assimilation,” he said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
