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IDF admits Shireen Abu Akleh was likely killed by Israeli fire, but won't charge soldiers

2022-09-06T01:05:32.531Z


The Israel Defense Forces admitted for the first time that there is a "high possibility" that journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli gunfire.


Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in a targeted attack, evidence shows 4:18

Jerusalem (CNN) --

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admitted for the first time that there is a "high possibility" that Al Jazeera Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli gunfire while covering an Israeli military operation in Jenin in May, they announced on Monday.


"It appears that it is not possible to unequivocally determine the origin of the shots that hit and killed Ms. Abu Akleh. However, there is a strong possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF fire towards the suspects." identified as armed Palestinian attackers during an exchange of fire," the IDF said in a statement.

But the IDF has no intention of pressing criminal charges or prosecuting any of the soldiers involved, the IDF Military Prosecutor General's Office said in a separate statement on Monday.

Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank in May.

"After a thorough review of the incident, and based on all the findings presented, the Military Advocate General determined that under the circumstances of the incident, despite the dire outcome, the death of Ms. Abu Akleh and the injury of Mr. Samudi, there was no suspicion of a criminal offense warranting the opening of an investigation," the statement said.

"The decision was based on the findings of the review, which determined that IDF soldiers only targeted those who were identified as armed terrorists during the incident. Therefore, there was no suspicion that a bullet had been deliberately fired. against someone identified as a civilian and, in particular, against someone identified as a journalist," the statement said.

A senior IDF official who briefed journalists on the findings of the military investigation before they were made public said that IDF troops did not know they were shooting at the press, and claimed that the fact that Abu Akleh his "probably" back to the soldiers was a contributing factor.

In footage from the scene of the shooting, Abu Akleh is wearing a protective vest with "PRESS" written on both the front and back.

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"When they were shooting in that direction, the soldiers were not aware that they were shooting at the journalists. They thought they were shooting at the militants who were shooting at them," the IDF officer said.

A CNN investigation in May uncovered evidence, including two videos from the scene of the shooting, that there was no active fighting, or Palestinian militants, near Abu Akleh in the moments before his death.

Images obtained by CNN, corroborated by testimony from eight eyewitnesses, a forensic audio analyst and an explosive weapons expert, suggest that Israeli forces intentionally targeted Abu Akleh.

Al Jazeera, Abu Akleh's employer, has consistently claimed that the IDF is responsible for his death.

Asked about investigations, including CNN's, that found no militants near Abu Akleh when he died, the official said: "We estimate that there were militants in the immediate vicinity of Ms. Abu Abkleh. Maybe not within a meter of her, but they were in that area," but provided no evidence to support that claim.

"The soldier is sorry, and I'm sorry. This wasn't meant to happen and it shouldn't happen. He didn't do it on purpose," the official said.

He did not name the soldier.

  • 'They were shooting directly at journalists': evidence suggests Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in a targeted attack by Israeli forces

When she died, Abu Akleh was accompanied by a group of other journalists, including her producer Ali al-Samoudi, who turned out.

In Monday's briefing with reporters, the senior IDF official said the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was too damaged to be able to identify which weapon fired it, the same conclusion reached by a US-led forensic investigation. .

However, the IDF has concluded that the soldier who likely fired the fatal shot was south of Abu Akleh in an armored military vehicle with limited visual range, did not identify Abu Akleh as a journalist, and thought he was shooting to the militants.

The official said soldiers in the area had been under fire "for an hour and fifteen minutes" before Abu Akleh was shot.

Asked why the shooting seemed to continue even after Abu Akleh fell, the official said they did not count more than seven bullets fired after she was killed.

There were Israeli drones filming during the operation, the official said, but not at a high enough resolution to be able to see the fatal shot.

Following Abu Akleh's death, Israeli authorities initially claimed that indiscriminate shooting by Palestinian militants was likely to have killed her, before acknowledging that Israeli gunfire may have been responsible for her death.

In its report on Monday, the IDF left open the possibility that Abu Akleh "was hit by bullets fired by armed Palestinian assailants in the direction of the area in which she was standing."

According to the Palestinian autopsy, Abu Akleh died from a single shot to the back of the head.

Shireen Abu Akleh's family criticized the IDF investigation, stating that Israel had "refused to take responsibility for Shireen's murder", and called for an independent US investigation.

The report "tried to hide the truth and avoid responsibility for the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh, our aunt, sister, best friend, journalist and Palestinian American," the family said in a statement sent to CNN.

"We have known for over 4 months that Shireen was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier, as countless investigations by CNN, Associated Press, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Al-Haq, B'tselem, the United Nations and the United Nations have concluded. others," the statement said.

"And yet, unsurprisingly, Israel has refused to take responsibility for Shireen's murder. Our family is not surprised by this outcome, as it is obvious to anyone that Israeli war criminals cannot investigate their own crimes." However, we remain deeply hurt, frustrated and disappointed."

  • This is what is known about the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist who was shot

In July, the United States determined that Israeli Army shooting was "probably responsible" for Abu Akleh's death, although a US-supervised examination of the bullet "was unable to reach a definitive conclusion" about its origin due to the state of the bullet

The US Security Coordinator, who heads an interagency team that coordinates with the Israeli government and the PA, "found no reason to believe it was intentional, but rather the result of tragic circumstances during a military operation directed by the IDF against Palestinian Islamic Jihad factions on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, following a series of terror attacks in Israel," according to a State Department statement at the time.

The IDF has been carrying out regular raids in the West Bank, especially in the Jenin area, targeting what it says are militants and weapons caches.

The raid in Jenin in which Abu Akleh was killed came on the heels of a months-long wave of attacks by Palestinians that killed 19 Israelis and foreigners.

Some of the suspected assailants in those attacks were from Jenin, according to the Israel Army.

Al JazeeraMurder journalist

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-09-06

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