People have to understand that if you see someone in the distance pointing an unknown object at you on top of a shoulder you have to expect it to be an RPG. I battled in Iraq for 14 months and had many RPGs fires at our unit. There is a point where you can hesitate or make a decision to kill or be killed. Think about it, a person you can barely see puts something on his shoulder and it's pointed straight at you. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? It is sad to see that the persons that were trying to film had no intent to harm the forces they were trying to film. I ask you this though, what would you do if you saw something pointed at you in the midst of an RPG riddled combat zone?

Cos, Anchorage, AK

For those of you who believe this was not an accident (despite the clear fact that the car's markings are tiny, flat, and the lens looks entirely like a shoulder mounted missile), and instead some premeditated policy being executed on behalf of the Israeli Defence Forces, I wonder why this doesn't happen all the time? If Israel, with all the means at their disposal, actually wanted to inflict civilian casualties on Gazans and on Cameramen, there would be no more people left in Gaza! They, unlike the suicide bombers, do not deliberately target civilians, which is why these sad and tragic incidents, propagated by Iranian-funded Terrorism, are relatively few. The fact that this incident is so isolated, demonstrates how careful the IDF actually is to limit collateral damage.

I wonder, if Hamas had tanks, how carefully they would look through the lens before they fired?

Simon, London,

Lion, the only State that has been wiped off the map is Palestine. The 'tiny' country of Israel is getting bigger and stronger everyday and gets away with murder as well. Israel has not been defeated once and it has the 4th largest army in the world including the 5th largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. to suggest that the primitive guns of Hamas will do the job of wiping Israel is an insult to our intellect and reality. The Palestinian are being murdered every day in the name of self defence. the Israeli occupation is a daily aggression and a violent act against the Palestinian people. just remember that no people under occupation have ever in history guaranteed the security of the occupier. how could they when they are and never safe under the occupation. how could they when the occupation have the guns, the tanks, the missles and the airforce in comparison to nothing except primitive rockets on the Palestinian side.

Abe, Sydney, Australia

Anyone who thinks that Israel is this victim in the region is plainly either biased or brainwashed. Israel is the aggressive terror state, if anyone is. Its just about time to wake up, isn't it? And no, this is not about the Jews as a whole...its about the Israeli governent. Just like the Iraq war is not about Americans...its about the government! When are we going to realize that people are inherently good but are pushed to side with bad agendas from bad government?!

Mike, Milton, USA

Israel is this tiny country surrounded by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and a raft of other violent Isalmic extremist military organizations ,whose sole reason for existence is to wipe Israel + the Jews out.
Israel has to face this day in day out. Hence them having nukes, they need it to survive. They account for 0.8% of 1% of the Arab land mass. Israel is smaller than Wales and has 6m people compared to the 500million hostile arabs, that have tried many times in the past to wipe them out. Not even talking about the "THOUSANDS" of suicide attemps, bomb attempts, declarations of extermination and war in this area.
Would love to see any other country in the world deal with this, 60 years on, after 3 wars that were an attempt to wipe your peope and country out.
let alone the multiple state funded religious nutters always trying to think of ways to destroy you.
you dont live there, you dont have a clue what Israel has to go through. arm chair critics who dont have a clue.

lion, london, uk

How dare the IDF defend the use of flechettes via such a selective approach to international law.

Tim Eslip, London, UK

NO MORE EXCUSES! A clear murder recorded for the world to see.Very disappointing that some of us will justify how a "sophisticated" army cannot differiantiate between a terrorist and a cameraman. The level of innocent people killed in Gaza is on par with the Nazi murders of Jews, the only difference is that innocent Palestinains dying seems to be acceptable. If we allow an aggressive state like Israel to kill in the name of the "war on terror", then there really is no hope. Defense and attack are not the same thing, how can they justify this murder. They can blame it on Hamas and the world will turn a blind eye. I for one am in shock that such murder can be bypassed as a "right to defend", its quite sickening. For those that say rockets have to stop and Hamas have to accept Israel is obsurd. Hamas are not occupying other land, they are not cutting the lifeline of a people, killing TV broadcasters and killing innocent children with a push of a button. Israel have commited a war crimes!

Yaz, London, UK

To Maya, Hamzeh and Waqas.
Maybe an idea to respond to bullets with ballots. 2 million+ approximately. That's the amount of Palestinian refugees/diaspora over 18, that have been unable to exericse their voting rights, in their ancestral towns, since being expelled in 1948 and 1967.
The system used by Afghans in camps is called, Out of Country Voting.

How about the world also hearing the voices of the Palestinian refugees/diaspora?
The skills are already there:
http://www.elections.ps/english.aspx
or for more info, google: out of country voting

Hugo van Randwyck, London, UK

While tragic,and without getting immersed in the why's and wherefores one has to look at the situation shown there.
The second Cameraman shows a lane with banks on each side, not unlike the bocage of France. What the Tank probably saw was someone standing on top of a bank with something on their Shoulder pointingf in their general direction. The press vehicle may well not have been visible or at best only partially visible. Without getting political, I would say I would probably have shot as well. Over the type of weapon used and if they should even be there ifor me that is a different matter. One which as I am niether Palistinian or Israeli I do not feel factually qualified to speak out about. Tragic certainly, but war and conflict is tragic in itself.

Steve, Wellheim, Germany

We can ask ourselves, WHY are there israelian tanks and hostilities anyway in the Gaza? Just because the israely government refuses to talk. All can be solved by only reaching to each other. Hamas has reached out several times but its hand was always rejected.
It seems that killing is the only option israel wants. Indeed, this indeed is the tragical case seen from its "policy" to continually expand its territory. It never gave this up. This was, is, and still remains the zionist driving factor.
This is the basic problem of the jewish state governed by their cynical "leaders". The basic problem is that the jewish state never was able to perceive a unity of people together, but only to perceive people "them and us".
It is a basic problem that is rooted in the heart of mankind, and not only in the jewish state.
It is the problem of the little self: utter egotism. When are we able to root this out? To begin with ourselves and then israel and the US?

rudolph, rotterdam, Netherlands

I cant believe there are actually people who are trying to justify what the Israeli tank did - people like Mick who lives in Fairfaz and is not a party to what was going on in the israeli soldier's head.

Look at the surroundings - there was no gunfire, no rockets, no anti-tank personnel - just a reporter recording the tank with his camera. He was killed and Israel got caught doing what it does best: killing innocents.

If Israeli soldiers wet themselves at the sight of press cars, then maybe they aren't fit for battle and shouldn't be part of Israel's terror squad in the middle east.

Waqas Ahmad, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

To those who say the tank crew was wrong: YOU try it, sometime. See some of your friends, after they burned to death in a tank hit by an anti-tank missile back in 2006. See a couple of amputees. Try being awake for 72, even 96 hours straight, cramped up in a hot tank, and then
see how well you do. And it isn't just you who will be killed, it is three other people in your crew, people that you, as a tank commander, have been charged to protect, that will slowly burn to death if you are wrong. Yes, tanks have good optics, but at the same time they are reknowned for having terrible visibility. Incidents of fratricide still occur, where a tank accidentally hit another tank on the same side, and the
crew certainly wasn't trying to murder them. That tank commander had to make a split-second decision, and he used the best weapon that he could, to defend himself and his crew from an anti-tank missile. Nothing else on that tank would have done a better job at stopping an enemy.

Mick, Fairfax,

Again it shows how the Israeli's do not care who they kill, men ,women and children, innocent or guilty it makes no difference whatsoever to them. I also of course do not condone the acts of Hamas or others but two rights do NOT make a right but Israel thinks they do. It is time Israel grew up and stoped being "childish" and assuming it has a right to kill anyone just because someone was killed by Palestinians. What gives Israel that right ?. No one. Look in the mirror Israel and you will see something horrible. Defence is one thing attack is entirely different.

Steve, London, UK

A tank shelling civilians, with flechettes. People massacred, kids in a bike....

I don't know why you carry a blindfold, but to me is crystal clear who is the terrorist in this occasion.

A US tank killed a Spanish cameraman in Baghdad. It seems that the only way for the press to be present in a conflict is embedded in the 'right' army.

josu, Spain,

I think this incident was entirely the Israelis' fault. Merkava tanks have advanced optical equipment allowing it to easily differentiate between a cameraman and a terrorist. Even tough I support their war agains the Islamic fundamentalists in Gaza, attacking innocent civilians can never be forgiven.

Mike, Otwock, Poland

This is sad, but It can be said in defense of the ISreali's that they've had HAMAS attack them from Ambulances and mock press vehicles just last year. The Hamas are to blame for this.

Dr.Van Nostrand, Dublin, IReland

It matters little whether or not the vehicle or Mr Shana was identified as press. This is another death you can actually attribute to Islamic fundamentalists. If they didn't disregard the rules of armed conflict and hide themselves in ambulances marked as Red Cross and on occasion in press vehicles then armies would not be faced with a situation where they have to suspect and potentially target what previously were always known to be 'neutral' vehicles and people.

Israel is often criticised because few understand what they face...an entire nation of people who wish to see the Israeli state destroyed and as they have said on many occasions 'the Jews pushed into the sea' The world is in actual fact too forgiving of Arab rhetoric and their calls for the murders of Jews and infidels. Israel is the only country who walks with their eyes wide open when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism.

David: When you are a soldier in that kind of situation then you will have the knowledge to comment

Claire , London, UK

Jonathon, its not the "rockets being fired" that are making the Israelis kill innocent people. Remember they shelled the UN headquarters in QANA, in Lebanon where all innocent people took refugee in 1996? at least one hundred civilians were martyred. We are asking too much from the UN which unfortunately lost its credibility and efficieny, in the favour of Israel.

maya ammar, Beirut, Lebanon

Sadly, this is par for the course when confronted with the naked aggression of Israel.

Is anyone, much less the U.S., going to do anything about it?...Nope.

And why?...Everyone knows why.

I say, Silent No More

Anthony, Grens, Suisse

This is not the first case of Israel (or the US in Iraq for that matter) targetting the media. All is fair in love and war, they say, and as any gangland thug knows you are more likely to get away with your crimes if there are no living witnesses.

Stephen Burgoyne Coulson, Vancouver, BC Canada

The matter of whether the murder weapons were legal or not is neither here nor there - it is a red herring. Murder is universally illegal outside of Israel no matter how it is committed and murder it clearly was. Business as usual for the Israelis. We hear about these (including the 'collateral damage', there having been more than one murder committed with the same tank shell) only because one of the victims was a Reuters cameraman.

Peter, Brownhills, England

I don't know, but to me every time the issue of the weapons Israel uses against, well everyone it seems really, the response we hear from these spokespersons is that they are "not illegal."

This just reminds me of the ongoing controversy regarding the interrogation methods that the US uses in its war "on" terror.

Israel has far superior military power than anyone in the Middle East, and the people it fights on a daily basis are the least armed of any of its prospective opponents in the region.

So why do they go to such far measures when it comes to selecting the types of weapons they use.

Israel seems to consciously select the worst weapons allegedly allowed by international law, but then they claim that they don't consciously target civilians and innocent people.

I think if you're going to push the limits of the law, the law has to push against you, and you should be scrutinized more for the targets you choose to use those weapons against.

The world is too forgiving of Israel.

Hamzeh N., Boulder, USA / Colorado

I am completely shocked that anyone can say this was an accident. As being a tank commander myself in the 1990s all tanks come with very good binoculars and optical gear in order to identify your enemy and also fire at your enemy in the most precise way.

All I can say here that this is a clear case of murder. I hope that a UN force can go in and protect the Palestinian borders which would stop rockets being fired into Israel and the Israeli army being prevented from going into the refugee camps and killing so many Innocent people.

Jonathon Carter, Manchester, United Kingdom

There is no way the tank crew could have possibly seen the tiny, flat, TV sign, lying on the engine cover, at that distance! The jeep is exactly the type that Hamas uses. Look at the size of the tank in the movie after Shana zooms out – obviously in the opposite direction Shana and his vehicle were tiny. Phill from Wirral is absolutely right. There was no way to check at such a distance. Shana holding up a large TV camera which to the crew, through the distorted lense of the tank’s viewing window (a kind of 90% plus 90% prism), and even with an exposed naked eye, can only have looked like a weapon, most probably an anti-tank shoulder missile which is held in exactly the same way. A jeep draws up directly opposite the tank in missile range, a man gets out and puts a large object on his shoulder - what can one expect the tank crew to do? Gamble with their own lives?

Ilan, Yehud, Israel

A point not being discussed here is that networks and news agencies should be ethical and demand not more and more pictures at any price, but rather that their local employees do not endanger their lives. Righteously demanding investigations afterwards, is not going to bring poor Shana back and it should not clear Reuters' conscience either. Shana should not have been allowed to endanger his young life in this way and Reuters should not send their employees to become shahids just in the name of obtaining news pictures. If they do, they cannot escape their responsibilty by just doing the usual Israel-bashing and eye-rolling. Until the rain of Hamas rockets on Sderot and Ashkelon ceases, Israel is going to be making heavily armed incursions into Iranian-armed-and supported Hamastan in order to try and stop it. The cameramen and journalists, Palestinian and foreign, must stay out of harm's way. No picture is worth a young life.

Ilan, Yehud, Israel

Enough of the apologists for the Israelis! What is the justification for using such a weapon, flechettes, in an area where the majority of people in the vicinity will be civilians. How can anybody justify the deaths of two passing innocents even if the tank commander was stupid enough not to recognize a TV camera being used? He would have had an effective means of seeing what the cameraman was actually holding after all!

Roger Leale, Brest, France

I could have not said it better David!!!

Yaz, London, UK

I agree with Phill, the angle and distance make it very hard to differentiate between cameraman and terrorist. It is a fact of life for these reporters and surely they must know they are putting themselves in harms way. Nevertheless it is always sad when an innocent civilian is killed in such a way

The fact that the terrorists have a habit of hiding amongst non combatants also makes this an event more likely to happen.

Gaza is now under Hamas control, there are no Israeli settlements and if the Palestinians ceased the rocket attacks across the border on a daily basis , perhaps the Israelis would stop firing the other way!!

Graham, London, UK

Nice attitude Phill.

You don't think perhaps the soliders in the tank could have taken a closer look at what he was holding? Perhaps assured themselves he was a threat before killing him? What about the guys passing on their bikes, were they at fault to for not keeping an eye out for tank shells?

You seem to think the onus is on the civilian to ensure they don't appear to be a threat to the army, rather than the army's to ensure they don't kill cililians.

David Taylor, Kew, Surrey

Im not supporting Israel here, but looking the video of the vehicle the only identification that it was a press vehicle is a 12x12 sticker on the flat bonnet saying 'TV'
The tank is appx 3/4 mile away and they'd never see such a small sticker at that angle.

Also, standing so far from an Israeli tank, looking like a Palestinian with a large piece of optical-equiped hardware on your shoulder is taking a serious risk.
You could be a Palestinian holding an RPG-7V which would put you well in range to hit the tank.

A serious error in judgement by Mr Shana from what I see on the video

Phill, Wirral, England