By
The Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A correspondent for Cable News Network was shot in the back yesterday while covering clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Ben Wedeman, 41, the CNN bureau chief in Cairo, was in stable condition after a bullet entered his back and came out his side, officials at the Shifa hospital in Gaza said.
Wedeman was covering clashes at the Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip when he was hit.
"He and other press were in the area and unfortunately they came across crossfire and were caught up in it," said Claudia Coles, a CNN spokeswoman in London. She did not say who shot Wedeman.
The network reported that Wedeman was filming an Israeli bunker before he was shot. The Israeli army spokesman said Wedeman was hit while he was on the Palestinian side or somewhere in between the two sides.
Intense fighting at the crossing left one Palestinian dead and another critically injured, hospital officials said in Gaza.
Wedeman was conscious and talking, and his injuries were not life-threatening, Coles said. After an initial check at the Gaza hospital, Israeli army medics were to meet him at a crossing into Israel and transfer him to an Israeli hospital, the army spokesman said.
Wedeman joined CNN in 1994, Coles said.
