Haaretz
The Israeli army admitted on Monday that it is ‘highly probable’ Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier.
The official probe found that Abu Akleh was likely mistakenly shot by an Israeli soldier while under fire who was using a telescopic scope and misidentified her as an armed Palestinian gunman. The Israel Defense Forces maintains it cannot rule out the possibility that Abu Akleh was killed by Palestinian gunfire, but it admits it is more likely an Israeli soldier was responsible.
Aviv Kochavi, the Israeli Army’s Chief of Staff, called Abu Akleh’s death ‘an unfortunate incident,’ adding that it occurred ‘during operational activity to thwart Palestinian terror.’
The Israeli Military Advocate General’s Office said it would not open an investigation into any soldiers involved in the incident as ‘there is no suspicion that a criminal offense was committed.’
As part of the investigation, the army analyzed all the relevant information that was at its disposal – including cellular data location, audio files, video clips and data published by various media outlets – and isolated the area where Abu Akleh was present.
According to the findings, Palestinian gunmen standing near Abu Akleh fired towards an Israeli armored vehicle. One of the soldiers believed Abu Akleh was part of the armed militants who fired at them, and he shot at her through a telescopic scope.
‘It cannot be unequivocally determined who shot her,’ a high ranking Israeli army official said, ‘It needs to be said that there were both IDF soldiers and Palestinians at the scene. The most likely scenario is that a soldier mistakenly fired the shots, while he himself was being fired at. The shots were fired while they were in an armored vehicle, and the soldiers responded by firing back at numerous targets. It’s possible that Shireen was accidentally shot during this’.
Abu Akleh, a veteran reporter for Qatar-based Al Jazeera and a U.S. citizen, was killed on May 11, during an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. At least five major international media outlets have since published detailed investigations of the case that all found Israel was likely responsible for the deadly shooting. An initial Israeli military probe, though, failed to reach a clear conclusion.
In early July, the U.S. State Department said an analysis of the bullet that killed her ‘could not reach a definitive conclusion regarding [its] origin.’ It did, however, say that Israeli soldiers were likely responsible for the killing.
‘Ballistic experts determined the bullet was badly damaged, which prevented a clear conclusion,’ State Department Spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that immediately drew frustration and anger from Palestinian officials, accusing Washington of siding with Israel and concealing the truth.
The U.S. Security Coordinator, the body that oversaw the examination by Israeli experts, ‘found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances during an IDF-led military operation against factions of Palestinian Islamic Jihad… which followed a series of terrorist attacks in Israel.’
Abu Akleh’s family called the American statement ‘an affront to justice that enabled Israel to avoid accountability for Shireen’s murder,’ adding it was ‘totally unacceptable.’
In late July, several of the journalist’s family members met with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
‘If we allow Shireen’s killing to be swept under the rug, we send a message that the lives of U.S. citizens abroad don’t matter, that the lives of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation don’t matter, and that the most courageous journalists in the world, those who cover the human impact of armed conflict and violence, are expendable,’ the Abu Akleh family continued in a statement issued ahead of the meeting with Blinken.
Over 80 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli security forces since the beginning of 2022. Some army officials have begun to question the military tactics being used, specifically the decision to enter city centers.
‘The number of causalities influences what we see on the ground,’ an army official said, adding that ‘This year has been very violent, but our soldiers aren’t trigger-happy. When we decide to risk our soldiers’ lives, we don’t do it without purpose. We do it carefully… I would be glad to clean out all weapons from the West Bank, but that’s not the situation.’