US officials concluded that gunfire from Israeli positions likely killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but that there was “no reason to believe” her shooting was intentional, the State Department said on Monday.
The finding, in a statement from State Department spokesman Ned Price, came after what the United States said was inconclusive testing by independent ballistics experts under US supervision of the bullet fragment recovered from the body of Abu Akleh.
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“Ballistics experts determined that the bullet was severely damaged, which prevented a clear conclusion” about who fired the shot, Price said in the statement.
Abu Akleh, a veteran correspondent and US and Palestinian citizen well known throughout the Arab world, was shot dead while covering an Israeli military incursion on May 11 into the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian eyewitnesses, including his crew, say that she was killed by Israeli troops and that there were no militants in the vicinity.
Israel says he was killed during a complex battle with Palestinian militants and that only a forensic analysis of the bullet would confirm whether it was fired by an Israeli soldier or a Palestinian militant. He has adamantly denied that she was deliberately targeted, but says an Israeli soldier may have hit her by mistake during an exchange of fire with a militant.
US security officials reviewed the results of both Palestinian and Israeli investigations and “concluded that firing from IDF positions was likely responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh,” Price said.
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The Israeli army presented the findings as part of its own investigation in a statement that likely angered the Palestinian Authority, which adamantly rejected any Israeli role in the investigation and refused to share the bullet with Israeli authorities.
The army said that while the bullet remained in the custody of US officials throughout the process, it was examined by Israeli experts at a forensic laboratory in Israel.
Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, the army’s chief of staff, ordered the investigation to continue “using all available means,” the army said in a statement. He said any decision on whether to launch a criminal investigation would only be made after the operational investigation is complete.
The Palestinian Authority and Al Jazeera accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting Abu Akleh within hours of his death.
An Associated Press reconstruction of her assassination backed up Palestinian eyewitness accounts, including her crew, that she was killed by Israeli forces. Subsequent investigations by CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post reached similar conclusions.
Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario. Associated Press reporter Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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