Israeli forces kill Palestinian journalist on her first day of work

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian woman on Wednesday in the Al-Arroub refugee camp north of Hebron, announced the Palestinian health ministry.

Ghufran Warasneh, a 31-year-old journalist from the Al-Arroub refugee camp, was shot at the camp's entrance earlier on Wednesday. She was taken to the Ahli hospital in Hebron, where she was pronounced dead an hour later.

"Warasneh received a bullet in the chest, very close to her heart," a spokesperson of the Ahli hospital told The New Arab.

"She arrived at the hospital practically dead," the spokesperson said. "She had lost too much blood and her heart had stopped."

Ghofran Warasnah, 31, who was shot dead by the Israeli soldiers this morning at the entrance of Al-Arroub refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, was a former prisoner behind Israeli bars.#FreePalestine #Jerusalem #ارفع_علمك #فيديو #Israelis #Zionist pic.twitter.com/wlt7RVLzn6

— Wafa News Agency - English (@WAFANewsEnglish) June 1, 2022

"Ghufran was going out to her work at around 7:40 in the morning through the refugee camp's entrance, where Israeli forces are usually stationed," Abdel Rahman Warasneh, her cousin, told The New Arab.

"A few minutes later we heard the news that somebody was shot and I rushed with other people to the camp's entrance, to find that it was Ghufran," he added.

"When her parents learned the news, they were devastated. She was their eldest and their main support," Warasneh said. "She was single and lived with them and helped care for her younger siblings."

Watch: Israeli forces Wednesday shot dead a Palestinian woman at the entrance of Al-Arroub refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.#FreePalestine #Jerusalem #ارفع_علمك pic.twitter.com/eb0Ca1PX7v

— Wafa News Agency - English (@WAFANewsEnglish) June 1, 2022

"Ghufran had applied for a job as a news presenter at our radio two weeks ago," Talab Jaabari, director and program producer at Dream Radio in Hebron told The New Arab.

"She went through some qualification tests and was hired and today [Wednesday] was her first day of work," Jaabari pointed out. "We were waiting for her to be the first to go on air as our new voice, but instead we received the news of her killing."

Palestinian social media accounts circulated videos of Warasneh's reports covering Palestinian news for local media outlets.

#فيديو| وكالة شهاب: "الشهيدة الصحفية غفران وراسنة أثناء اعداد تقرير صحفي سابق". pic.twitter.com/6dB5eP9m2z

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) June 1, 2022

"Ghufran was intelligent, charismatic and passionate about journalism and media," Jaabari described. "She was very excited to begin working with us, and we were enthusiastic to have her talent as part of the team."

Israeli media reported that Warasneh was wielding a knife and tried to stab Israeli soldiers, without providing evidence. Her family and colleagues denied Israeli claims. An eye-witness from Al-Arroub camp told Palestinian media that Warasneh was shot while standing at around a two-metre distance from an Israeli soldier.

The occupation forces shot a girl at the entrance to Al-Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron pic.twitter.com/pUyywdl57h

— Shaima Hassan (@ShaimaH55463893) June 1, 2022

A general strike was called in the Al-Arroub camp by local associations, as spontaneous protests were launched by Al-Arroub school students that turned into a confrontation between residents and the Israeli army at the camp's entrance.

Ghufran Warasneh is the second Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli forces in less than a month, after the killing of Aljazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in the Jenin refugee camp on May 11.

With Warasneh, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of 2022 rises to 56.