Palestine photojournalist injured by Israel fire has surgery in Turkiye

A Palestinian photojournalist, who suffered a severe hand injury while covering a protest in Gaza, had a surgery in Turkiye on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Ashraf Amra, a freelancer for Anadolu, Turkiye’s premier news agency, arrived in Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight from Cairo on Monday.

He was covering a protest demonstration of Palestinians near the fence in Khan Yunus region in Gaza on Friday when Israeli soldiers opened fire to disperse the crowd.

As many as 12 Palestinians were injured by the Israeli army’s use of live ammunition, rubber-coated bullets and tear gas shells.

READ: Anadolu Agency photojournalist Ashraf Amra injured by tear gas fired by Israeli forces in Khan Yunis

Amra underwent a two-hour-long surgery at Istanbul’s Basaksehir Cam and Sakura Hospital.

Hand surgery specialist, Dr. Okyar Altas, who performed the operation, said the procedure was successful.

For his part, Amra thanked Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Anadolu for welcoming him in Istanbul.

I hope that my fingers will heal and will not need to be amputated

he said.

He added that Israeli soldiers who saw the camera in his hand deliberately fired at him.

Anadolu’s Deputy Director General and Editor-in-Chief, Yusuf Ozhan, also visited Amra at the hospital, where doctors briefed him about his health.

READ: Gaza: Palestinian journalists and paramedics targeted by Israeli occupation forces