Dead palestinian journalist not Hamas member, US officials state

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.