“Since the incident happened, I’ve been telling the cameraman: I feel like I’m going to be killed.”
36-year-old Ameen Shihada still hears the sound of the bullet that passed right next to his head.
Shihada, a reporter for Al-Arabiya TV, and cameraman Rabi’ al-Munir (42), found themselves in the line of fire from Israeli forces while covering a story at the top of a moderately sloped hill.
Despite their clear journalistic identity—represented by press vests, helmets, camera mounts, cameras, and microphones—this was not enough to protect them.
Israeli forces fired at least three bullets toward the two journalists, two of which hit the camera, which was, according to Shihada, about half a meter away from him and no more than 30 centimeters from al-Munir.
With a less confident tone than when he appears on TV, Shihada tells Forbidden Stories, “This was a deliberate message to us.” His explanation for the incident is based on a sharp insight, the result of 14 years of working as a correspondent in the West Bank. Requesting to document what he says, Shihada adds, “Please record what I’m saying in case something happens to me… As reporters working in the West Bank, we feel today more than ever that any one of us could go on a mission and never return.”
In the early hours of May 4, 2024, Shihada and al-Munir headed to Deir al-Ghusun, northeast of Tulkarem city (in the occupied West Bank), to cover a raid that lasted over 12 hours. According to the Israeli police spokesperson’s office, the operation involved Israeli police counterterrorism forces, the Israeli military, and the Shin Bet security service, aiming to “foil the activity of a terrorist cell.”
During the raid, Israeli forces demolished a two-story house with a bulldozer, claiming it was owned by members of Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and Israel. Overnight, five Palestinians were killed in the area, as reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and Israeli forces. Hamas confirmed that four of the dead were members of its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
According to testimonies from six journalists present at the scene, including Shihada and al-Munir, there was no military activity or disturbances, nor were any stones thrown in the vicinity of the journalists’ work area. The nearest fighting was about 290 meters away from the journalists’ location, around the targeted house.
Upon their arrival, the crew (the journalists) climbed a nearby hill to observe the area of conflict, according to their account to Forbidden Stories.
Shihada explained that the soldiers were informed of the reporters’ presence, and their journalistic identity was recognized. Neither Shihada nor al-Munir changed their position from their arrival at around 8:00 AM until the shooting incident at approximately 10:30 AM. (Forbidden Stories was able to extract metadata from a photo taken at 9:28 AM at the scene, showing the two journalists at the same location, wearing their press vests.)
According to footage and open-source information collected by Forbidden Stories, at least three Israeli military vehicles were stationed approximately 60 meters away from the journalists. Satellite images show an empty road with no buildings separating the journalists from the soldiers. The only barrier was the hill they were standing on, with local plants such as a palm tree and scattered dry grass growing on its slope. The two journalists were clear targets for the Israeli forces. Shihada said that they (Shihada and al-Munir) were the only ones standing on that specific side of the hill.
Forbidden Stories reviewed the full broadcast from Al-Arabiya TV for the day, starting around 8:20 AM until the announcement of the incident at 10:43 AM. The broadcast continued for at least an hour and 50 minutes from Shihada and al-Munir’s camera feed, without reporting any disturbances around them during the broadcast. The three military vehicles were visible in every video shot taken by al-Munir throughout the broadcast.
Earlier that morning, in a segment aired by Al-Arabiya, the host asked Shihada, “Could the situation escalate in the next few hours?” Shihada responded, “The disturbances are exclusively centered around the targeted house… There are no clashes in the surrounding homes or neighborhoods.”
However, more than an hour later, around 10:30 AM, the first bullet was fired next to them, among at least three shots.
The crew’s camera was running during the gunfire, capturing a conversation between the journalists and the sound of two bullets piercing the equipment. The first bullet struck the camera cable, cutting the live broadcast signal, while the second hit the camera itself, causing it to stop working.
Forbidden Stories obtained a 34-second video of the incident, showing the moment the camera was targeted. The recording begins with the sound of a gunshot, followed by a slight shake of the camera. Shihada explains that the shake was caused by accidentally bumping into the camera tripod while seeking cover. At the end of the video, a second gunshot is heard, and the recording ends abruptly.
Initially, the journalists were unaware of the source of the gunfire, and Shihada assumed the bullets were coming from soldiers stationed around the targeted house. But later, Shihada warns the cameraman, as shown in the video: “Look, he’s shooting at us,” and asks him to focus on the jeep at the site. After the initial shock wore off, they suspected the shots came from Israeli military vehicles, which had been stationed at the base of the hill for several hours, blocking the journalists’ line of sight.
An independent analysis conducted by the “Earshot” sound research agency explained that the distinct sound of medium-caliber ammunition being fired from a rifle towards a recording device typically produces two separate sounds: the supersonic bullet’s explosion and the accompanying sound of the bullet leaving the barrel. According to Earshot, both sounds were audible in the 34-second Al-Arabiya video, with a sufficient time gap between the sounds, indicating that the camera was in the line of fire.
