RAMALLAH|PALESTINE - A Palestinian video journalist suffered blindness in one eye as a result of gunfire from Israeli snipers. The shooting occurred when the freelance journalist named Muath Amarneh was covering a protest in the West Bank city of Hebron earlier this week.
The 21-year-old Muath, 11, is a freelance journalist from al-Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Turkish news agency Anadolu Agency reported. He lost his left eye while covering a protest in the village of Surif near Hebron.
Photos of Muath with bloody eyes, wearing his covering vest and camera, have gone viral on social media in recent days. This then sparked solidarity campaigns from various circles around the world.
Dozens of Palestinian journalists published photos of them covering their left eye under the hashtags Muatheye, MuathAmarneh and EyeoftheTruth. Several Arab, foreign politicians, sportsmen and journalists showed their solidarity by doing the same and then published on social media and television.
Muath on Tuesday underwent critical surgery. The doctor managed to remove the remaining left eye. However, the doctors were unable to remove the shrapnel from his head because of the high risk to his life.
The Palestinian Journalists Group says it has documented nearly 600 Israeli abuses against Palestinian journalists so far this year. "Palestinian journalists were subjected to Israeli bullets, which have seriously injured 60 of them," they said in a statement. [DDHKNws]
News source: Republika Online /Photo: Anadolu Agency
