WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was likely killed by unintentional fire from Israeli positions, but independent investigators have been unable to reach a conclusive conclusion on the origin of the bullet that hit her. struck, the US State Department said Monday.
Shireen Abu Akleh was killed on May 11 during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank while she was covering the event for the Al Jazeera news channel.
The United States Security Coordinator (USSC), after reviewing the findings of parallel investigations by the Israeli army and the Palestinian Authority, concluded that a shot from Israeli positions was likely the cause of the his death, the US State Department said.
“The USSC found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather was the result of tragic circumstances during an Israeli Armed Forces military operation against Palestinian Islamic Jihad factions,” he said. he added in a statement.
During forensic examinations by independent experts supervised by the USCC, however, ballistics specialists found that the bullet was too damaged to allow an indisputable conclusion on its origin to be reached, explains the State Department.
The Palestinian authorities accused the Israeli army of deliberately killing Shireen Abu Akleh. Israel denied the accusation, saying the journalist may have been hit by a stray bullet from its ranks or by a shot from one of the armed Palestinians confronting its soldiers.
The death of Shireen Abu Akleh and the clashes between Israelis and Palestinians are likely to weigh down the climate of the official visit to the region by American President Joe Biden next week.
(Report Chris Gallagher, French version Sophie Louet and Nicolas Delame)
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