The Palestinian Authority handed over to the Americans for expertise the bullet that killed the American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May, the Palestinian chief prosecutor told AFP on Saturday evening.
Prosecutor Akram Al-Khatib indicated that the fatal bullet to Shireen Abu Akleh, killed on May 11 while covering an Israeli military operation in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, had been handed over to the United States, which will assess it, to then surrender to the Palestinian Authority.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported on Saturday evening that the Palestinian Authority had given the green light to hand the ball to the United States, but not to Israel.
Asked by AFP whether the bullet had already been handed over to the Americans to allow them to assess it, prosecutor Akram Al-Khatib replied “yes”. He specified that the Americans had undertaken to return it to the Palestinians.
According to the Palestinian investigation, the star journalist of the Arab channel Al Jazeera was killed by a 5.56 mm caliber bullet fired by an Israeli soldier who used an M-14, a semi-automatic weapon.
Journalistic investigations have also pointed in the direction of the Israeli army. Ditto for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which concluded that an Israeli soldier was fatally shot.
But the Israeli army rejected the UN version, the Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, evoked an investigation “without foundation”.
Since the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, Israel has been asking the Palestinians to give them the fatal bullet, in order to determine if it really came from an Israeli soldier’s weapon.
The Palestinian Authority has always refused to hand over the bullet to them and recently asked the Israelis to send the fatal weapon to the journalist.