The US State Department said Monday after a ballistic investigation that Shireen Abu Akleh was “likely” the victim of a shot from an Israeli position. While specifying that he had “no reason” to believe that this shooting was intentional.
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The Palestinian Authority denounced, Monday, July 4, an attempt to “to hide the truth” into the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, after a US investigation concluded that she “presumably” been the victim of Israeli fire, but without giving a definitive opinion on the origin of the bullet.
“We do not accept attempts to hide the truth and we are not afraid to accuse Israel (…) which bears responsibility for the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh”, commented on Twitter a tenor from the Palestinian Authority, Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh.
The US State Department said on Monday, following a ballistics investigation, that Shireen Abu Akleh had been “presumably” the victim of a shooting from an Israeli position when she was killed on May 11 on the sidelines of an Israeli army operation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
American experts have no “no reason” to believe it was an intentional shooting, the State Department added. The Israeli army, for its part, claimed to have examined the bullet and considered that it was not possible to determine in any way “definitive” the origin of the fatal shot.
“We are appalled by today’s announcement from the State Department … that an examination of the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, an American citizen, was inconclusive as to the origin of the gun that fired her”the family wrote in a statement shared on Twitter.
Palestinian prosecutor Akram al-Khatib meanwhile said in a statement that the findings of the US investigation “surprised” because Shireen Abu Akleh had, according to his investigation, been killed in a manner “deliberate” by an Israeli soldier.