The Israeli army has concluded that there is a “strong possibility” that a journalist who died while covering a raid in the occupied West Bank was killed by one of its soldiers.
Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was working for Al Jazeera’s Arabic language channel when she was shot dead in the city of Jenin on May 11.
She died shortly afterwards.
His employer later released a statement saying the journalist had been “murdered in cold blood” by Israel.
Following an internal investigation, the IDF said on Monday: “There is a strong possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire which was fired at suspects identified as gunmen. Palestinians”.
A senior official said the military would not launch a criminal investigation into what happened and therefore neither the soldier nor anyone in his chain of command would be punished.
The Palestinians also blamed Israel for the killing.
Israel initially said Ms Abu Akleh may have been shot by militants, but later said a soldier may have hit her by accident during an exchange of fire.
The results of the investigation revealed that the troops conducting operations in Jenin had come under heavy fire from all directions and returned fire, particularly towards the area where Ms. Abu Akleh was standing.
She was about 200 meters from their position, but the Israeli army said the soldiers were unable to identify her as a journalist.
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He said it was also possible that she was hit by Palestinian gunmen.
A senior military official who briefed reporters on the investigation’s findings said, “We can say with 100 percent certainty that no IDF soldier intentionally fired at any journalist or uninvolved person on the ground.”
Palestinian officials and Ms Abu Akleh’s own family said they believed she was killed deliberately and they dismissed Israeli claims that there were militants nearby.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “All the evidence, all the facts and all the investigations that have been carried out have proven that Israel was the perpetrator and that it killed Shireen and that he should take responsibility for his crime.
A US forensic examination of the bullet that killed her came to no conclusion because the bullet was too badly damaged.
