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TEL AVIV — An Israeli military inquiry concluded that it was “highly likely” that Palestinian American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli fire, in the first full reversal of an earlier position that contended that the fatal bullet was probably from a Palestinian.
Abu Akleh, a veteran correspondent who had covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades for Al Jazeera, was shot and killed on May 11 while covering an overnight Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin. She was wearing clearly marked press gear and was in a relatively quiet area, far from any Palestinian gunmen, according to eyewitnesses and fellow journalists interviewed by The Washington Post.
“There is a high possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire that was fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen, during an exchange of fire in which life-risking, widespread and indiscriminate shots were fired toward IDF soldiers,” a military statement said on Monday, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
“IDF gunfire was fired with the intent of neutralizing the terrorists who shot at IDF soldiers, also from the area in which Ms. Shireen Abu Akleh was present,” it said. The statement did not proe eence supporting the conclusion and did not address footage showing that the area where she was stationed seemed isolated and quiet before the shooting.
How Shireen Abu Akleh was killed
It also reiterated two initial claims: the possibility that “Ms. Abu Akleh was hit by bullets fired by armed Palestinian gunmen” and that it was still “not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire which hit Ms. Abu Akleh.”
Israel has repeatedly said that the Israeli military has been intensively involved in “counterterrorism” activity in the area around Jenin, a historic hotbed of Palestinian armed movement and the hometown of a number of the assailants who carried out a string of Palestinian terror attacks in Israel last spring.
The Israeli military will not charge or investigate any soldiers involved in the Abu Akleh shooting because there is no suspicion of a criminal offense, military officials said.
Investigations by The Post, along with the New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, the investigative group Bellingcat, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and other organizations, found that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh probably originated from an Israeli soldier.
In July, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that a U.S.-led assessment of the investigations and the eence concluded that Abu Akleh was most likely, although unintentionally, shot by an Israeli soldier.
Abu Akleh’s killing has sparked outrage among critics and international human rights organizations that accused Israel of trying to cover up the incident and absolve itself of responsibility. The criticism spiked again when Israeli police used batons to beat mourners, nearly causing pallbearers to drop the coffin, at Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem on May 14. An Israeli police investigation found wrongdoing but said that no police officers or supervisors would be penalized as a result.
At Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral, scenes of grief as Israeli police beat mourners
The incident has put an international spotlight on what Palestinians and human rights activists have for decades called a policy of impunity in Israel’s military.
“This policy claims more and more victims while the whitewash continues undisturbed,” said B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization that monitors the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank.
Abu Akleh’s family has accused Israel of intentionally killing her and has been lobbying the American government and the International Criminal Court to conduct their own independent investigations.
“It’s obvious to anyone that Israeli war criminals cannot investigate their own crimes,” said a statement by the family. “We will continue to demand that the US government follow through with its stated commitments to accountability. Accountability requires action.”
