Israeli army acknowledges ‘strong possibility’ of killing journalist

For the first time, the Israeli army acknowledged, on Monday 5 September, “a strong possibility” of having killed, but not deliberately, the journalist of the pan-Arab channel Al Jazeera Shireen Abu Akleh, in the final conclusions of his investigation. The army also recognized that one of his soldiers had indeed fired in the direction of the journalist, mistaking his identity: “there is a strong possibility that (Shireen) Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by Israeli army fire which was aimed at suspects identified as Palestinian gunmen”.

The military reported studying “chronologically” the sequence of events, analyzed the locations, videos and sounds recorded on site, conducted a “scene simulation” and that “Israeli experts” carried out a ballistic analysis of the bullet on July 2, in the presence of representatives of the “United States Security Coordination Committee for Israel and the Palestinian Authority”.

Due to the “poor condition of the ball”identifying its origin was “hard”underlined the army in its report, saying not to have the certainty “unequivocal” of the origin of the fatal shooting to the journalist. Al Jazeera star, the American-Palestinian journalist was shot dead on May 11 while covering an Israeli military operation in the Palestinian camp of Jenin, a stronghold of the Palestinian armed factions in the north of the occupied West Bank, where a special unit was trying to apprehend “suspects”which led to armed clashes.

After the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, equipped with a bulletproof vest with the mention “press” and a helmet, the Palestinian Authority and her employer Al Jazeera immediately accused the Israeli army of having killed her. Israel has consistently rejected this accusation, despite journalistic investigations and a UN report concluding that an Israeli shot was fired, which however ruled out that it was deliberate.