Blinken asked Gantz to reexamine the IDF's opening fire instructions in the West Bank
The US Secretary of State spoke with Gantz and told him that the fact that Abu Aqla was killed shows that the soldiers did not follow the instructions to open fire or that the instructions are not suitable for the situation on the ground and must be re-examined. Senior Israeli officials stated that the IDF is expected to publish the final conclusions of the investigation this week. the next two weeks
Barak Ravid
08/18/2022
Thursday, August 18, 2022, 09:17 Updated: 11:16
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In the video: Gantz refers to the American investigation which stated that it is not possible to determine who shot the journalist Shirin Abu Aqla (photo: Ministry of Defense Spokesperson)
The Biden administration wants Israel to conduct a re-examination of the instructions to open fire during an IDF operation in the West Bank following the incident in Jenin in which the American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu-Aqla was killed, American sources familiar with the matter told Walla!.
"Killed during an arrest operation."
Shirin Abu Aqla (photo: official website, from Facebook)
why is it important:
This is an extremely unusual American move that comes against the background of the pressure exerted in the United States on the Biden administration to take additional steps to ensure that the parties involved in the death of Shireen Abu-Aqla are held accountable for it.
The opening fire instructions established by commanding officers in the IDF define for the soldiers in which cases they are allowed to use live ammunition.
More in Walla!
The Palestinians handed the US the bullet that killed the Al Jazeera journalist
To the full article
reminder:
Abu Aqla was killed last May during an IDF arrest operation in Jenin, in the northern West Bank. Abu Aqla, a reporter for the Al Jazeera network, was wearing a protective vest with the words "press" on it.
The Biden administration determined at the beginning of July that Abu Aqla was apparently killed by an unintentional shot by Israeli soldiers, but the conclusion of the ballistics test of the bullet removed from her body was that it is not possible to determine with certainty which weapon it was fired from.
In the news center:
After a meeting with Abu Aqla's family members at the end of July, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called Defense Minister Benny Gantz and asked him to publish as soon as possible the final report of the IDF's operational investigation into the circumstances of Abu Aqla's death.
But according to American sources, Blinken had another request - a particularly unusual one.
The American Secretary of State asked Gantz that following the incident in which Abu Aqla was killed, the IDF would re-examine the instructions to open fire in the West Bank and clarified that this would be a step in the direction of taking responsibility for what happened.
Blinken told Gantz that he believes that the fact that Abu Aqla was killed by gunfire shows that either the soldiers did not follow the instructions to open fire or that the instructions to open fire are not suitable for the situation on the ground and should be re-examined, according to American sources who are familiar with the contents of the conversation.
Gantz, for his part, replied to Blinken that there are events that take place in the field during a military operation "that are not black and white cases".
What they say:
"As the foreign minister in Lincoln said in the past, we call the president accountable for the tragic killing of the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla," said a spokesman for the US State Department.
A senior Israeli official told Walla!: "This was not an official request from the Americans, and even if there had been one, we would have refused. Israel is a sovereign country and the instructions to open fire save lives."
What next:
Senior Israeli officials said that the final conclusions of the IDF investigation regarding the incident in which Abu Aqla was killed will be published in the next week or two.
The Biden administration plans to continue to raise before Israel the demand to reexamine the IDF's instructions to open fire in the West Bank, American sources said.
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