JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military announced the long-awaited results of its investigation Monday into the fatal shooting of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, saying there was a “high probability” that an Israeli soldier killed her killed by mistake during a raid in the occupied West Bank last May.
It was the closest Israel has come to accepting responsibility for the shooting. But in a report that seemed to raise as many questions as it wanted to answer, the military revealed no new evidence to support its claim that the Palestinian-American journalist may have been killed by Palestinian gunmen during a battle with Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen. He also said no one would be punished for the shooting.
The findings are unlikely to end an issue that has worsened already tense relations between Israel and the Palestinians. Both Palestinian officials and Abu Akleh’s family accused the army of shirking responsibility for his 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,” his family said in a communicated
Abu Akleh, a 51-year-old Palestinian-American, was killed while covering an Israeli incursion into the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on May 11. He had covered the West Bank for Al Jazeera for two decades and was a well. -a face known throughout the Arab world.
In a briefing with reporters, a senior Israeli military official said there was a “very high probability” that Abu Akleh was mistakenly shot by an Israeli soldier inside an armored vehicle who thought he was targeting a militant.
“He misidentified her,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under military information guidelines. “Their real-time reporting … points absolutely to misidentification.”
“We know that he fired, but this may have happened from another fire,” he added.
Jenin is known as a stronghold of Palestinian militants, and Israel has carried out raids there almost nightly since a series of deadly attacks on Israel earlier this year, some of which were carried out by assailants in the area.
Echoing earlier Israeli claims, the military official said the soldiers had been under continuous fire for nearly an hour from multiple directions before Abu Akleh was shot. The army released several videos showing Palestinian militants firing automatic weapons and soldiers who were under fire that day.
But the military did not provide evidence to support its claim that there was a fierce firefight at the time Abu Akleh was shot. Fan videos, as well as witnesses, have shown no evidence of militants in the vicinity and the area appeared to be quiet for several minutes before she was shot.
It was also unclear how Abu Akleh, who was wearing a helmet and vest marked “press” at the time, could be mistaken for a militant. The officer said only that the soldier’s view from inside the vehicle was “very limited,” causing Abu Akleh to be misidentified in a split-second decision.
He said the findings of the investigation had been handed over to the chief military prosecutor, who was satisfied with them and decided not to open a criminal investigation. This means that no one will be charged with his death.
Critics have long accused the military of doing a poor job of investigating wrongdoing by its troops. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem accused the army of “whitewashing”, while Abu Akleh’s family and the Palestinian Authority called for the case to be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The ICC has opened an investigation into possible war crimes by Israel in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, dismissed the announcement as “another Israeli attempt to evade responsibility for his murder.”
He said that all the evidence shows that “Israel is to blame, that it killed Shireen, and it must be held accountable for its crime.”
The AP, Abu Akleh’s family and Al Jazeera have accused Israel of intentionally killing Abu Akleh, while a number of investigations by international media organizations, including The Associated Press, have found that Israeli troops likely they fired the fatal shot. The United States concluded that an Israeli soldier probably killed her by mistake, but did not explain how they reached that conclusion.
Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief Walid Al-Omari said Monday’s report was “clearly an attempt to evade the opening of a criminal investigation”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called the Israeli findings “late and incomplete.”
“They provided no name for the killer of Shireen Abu Akleh and no information other than his own testimony that the killing was a mistake,” said Sherif Mansour, coordinator of the Middle East and North program of Africa of the group. “This does not provide the answers, with any measure of transparency or accountability, that his family and colleagues deserve.”
Israel has previously said she was killed during a complex battle with Palestinian militants and that only a forensic analysis of the bullet could confirm whether it was fired by an Israeli soldier or a Palestinian militant. However, a US-led analysis of the bullet last July was inconclusive, with investigators saying the bullet had been badly damaged.
The US ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, declined to comment when asked about the investigation at a news conference.
The AP reconstruction of Abu Akleh’s killing supported the testimony that she was killed by Israeli forces. Subsequent investigations by CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post reached similar conclusions, as did follow-up by the office of the UN human rights chief.
Abu Akleh rose to prominence two decades ago during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli rule. It documented the harsh realities of life under Israeli military rule, now in its sixth decade with no end in sight, for viewers across the Arab world.
Israeli police drew widespread criticism from around the world when they beat mourners and pallbearers at his funeral in Jerusalem. An Israeli newspaper reported that a police investigation found abuse by some of its officers, but said those who oversaw the event would not be severely punished.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has built settlements where nearly 500,000 Israelis live alongside nearly 3 million Palestinians. The Palestinians want the territory to form the main part of a future state.
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AP correspondents Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel and Joseph Krauss in Ottawa, Ontario contributed to this report.