Killing of Muhammad al-Durrah

On 30 September 2000, the second day of the Second Intifada, 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah (Arabic: محمد الدرة, romanized: Muḥammad ad-Durra) was killed in the Gaza Strip during widespread protests and riots across the Palestinian territories against Israeli military occupation. Jamal al-Durrah and his son Muhammad were filmed by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian television cameraman freelancing for France 2, as they were caught in crossfire between the Israeli military and Palestinian security forces. Footage shows them crouching behind a concrete cylinder, the boy crying and the father waving, then a burst of gunfire and dust. Muhammad is shown slumping as he is mortally wounded by gunfire, dying soon after.

Fifty-nine seconds of the footage were broadcast on television in France with a voiceover from Charles Enderlin, the station's bureau chief in Israel. Based on information from the cameraman, Enderlin told viewers that the al-Durrahs had been the target of fire from the Israeli positions and that the boy had died. After an emotional public funeral, Muhammad was hailed throughout the Muslim world as a martyr.

The Israel Defense Forces accepted responsibility for the shooting at first, claiming that Palestinians used children as human shields but later retracted the admission of responsibility. Critics of Enderlin's filmed report have since questioned the accuracy of France 2's footage. French journalists who saw the raw footage said that France 2 had cut a final few seconds in which Muhammad appeared to lift his hand from his face; they acknowledged that Muhammad had died, but said the footage alone did not show it. France 2's news editor said in 2005 that no one could be sure who fired the shots. Philippe Karsenty, a French media commentator, went further, alleging that the scene had been staged by France 2; France 2 successfully sued him for libel in 2006, with Karsenty ordered to pay symbolic damages of €1, while in 2013 Karsenty was convicted for defamation for the allegation and fined €7,000 by a Paris court. In May of that year, an Israeli government investigation suggested that the France 2 report "was so deeply flawed that it was possible that the boy had been neither shot nor killed during the incident." Jamal al-Durrah and Charles Enderlin rejected its conclusion and called for an independent international investigation.

The footage of the father and son acquired what one writer called the power of a battle flag. Postage stamps in the Middle East carried the images. Abu Rahma's coverage of the al-Durrah shooting brought him several journalism awards, including the Rory Peck Award in 2001.