The US State Department has revealed that palestinian photojournalist Yaser Murtaja who was killed by Israeli sniper fire at a protest in Gaza on the 6th of April had been vetted by US authorities as part of of an successfull application from his organisation for a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
This casts doubt on claims from the Israeli defence department that Mr Murtaja had been a high ranking member of the islamic fundamentalist group Hamas.
If this were the case, it is unlikely that he US authorities, who were working in collaboration with Israeli intelligence officials, would have assessed Mr Murtaja as someone innocent of terrorist connections.
Hamas has also denied the link.