Photographer killed in hail of Israeli tank fire

Israel's armed forces killed an Italian photographer yesterday and narrowly missed a TV correspondent in a clearly marked car, who was saved by his flak jacket, adding another entry to a fattening dossier of attacks on journalists trying to cover Israel's activities in the occupied territories.

The events occurred during the Israeli army's takeover of Ramallah in the West Bank. The operation – which Israel claims is to root out Palestinian "terrorism"– comprises the largest military offensive by Israel since 1982.

Witnesses said Raffaele Ciriello, 42, a highly regarded freelance photographer on assignment for the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, was shot dead when soldiers in an Israeli tank opened fire on him without warning from 150 yards away, using a heavy machine-gun.

It was a tragedy many observers had long feared because Israeli soldiers in the occupied territories frequently fire at foreign journalists, knowing that they are unlikely to face any serious consequences or rigorous investigation.

The Israeli army said it "regretted" Mr Ciriello's death and was conducting an investigation, an announcement that is unlikely to comfort his family, employers, or friends. Many previous inquiries into cases of Israeli soldiers shooting journalists have dragged on for more than a year, and ended with a whitewash.

Mr Ciriello worked for 10 years in trouble spots, including Kosovo, Bosnia, and Afghanistan and had his own website displaying his work. He was killed at about 9.30am in the centre of Ramallah. A colleague who was with him, Amedeo Ricucci, said they were following Palestinian gunmen when an Israeli tank appeared from around the corner.

He said soldiers on the tank fired a machine-gun without warning, striking Mr Ciriello in the stomach. "Suddenly a tank appeared from a corner and it opened fire," Mr Ricucci said.

In a separate incident in Ramallah, Tareq Abdel Jaber, an Egyptian TV correspondent, said Israeli soldiers fired at least five shots at his car, clearly marked with big TV signs. He said one bullet hit him in the right side but was stopped by his flak jacket.

Yesterday's bloodshed came 24 hours after the Israeli army fired for 15 minutes into a hotel being used by journalists in Ramallah. The army justified that assault – in which seven shots were fired at a camera belonging to the American ABC network – by claiming it was returning fire from a gunman. The hotel's occupants said there was no gunman. Later in the day, soldiers also fired at the tyres of a taxi carrying British and American journalists.

According to the journalists' organisation, Reporters Without Borders, there have been 40 cases since the start of the Palestinian intifada in which journalists, mostly foreign, have been injured by bullets. The organisation's investigations found the Israeli armed forces were responsible in the majority of cases.

Those findings conflicted with those of Israel's military. After investigations into a batch of cases in the early months of the intifada, the army issued a report saying it found none of its troops was to blame, except in one case.

Mr Ciriello's death is the second for Corriere della Sera in less than six months. One of its reporters, Maria Grazia Cutuli, was killed with three other journalists in an ambush in Afghanistan in November.