Jerusalem: The Israeli army said Monday there was a ‘high possibility’ that a soldier killed a well-known Al Jazeera journalist in the occupied West Bank last May. This information came as the Israeli army announced the results of its investigation into the killing.
In a briefing to reporters, a senior military official said a soldier opened fire after mistakenly identifying Shireen Abu Akleh as a militant. But he provided no evidence to back up the Israeli claim that Palestinian gunmen were present in the area and said no one would be punished. He also did not address video evidence showing the area to be quiet before Abu Akleh was shot.
The conclusions are the closest Israel has come to taking responsibility for the death of Abu Alekh and followed a series of investigations by media organisations and the United States which concluded Israel either fired, or most likely had fired, the deadly shot. But they were unlikely to put the matter to rest.
“He misidentified Abu Alekh,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under military briefing guidelines. “His reports in real time…Absolutely point to a misidentification.”
Abu Akleh was wearing a helmet and a vest identifying her as press when she was killed in May while covering Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem accused the army of carrying out a whitewash. “It was no mistake. It”s policy,” the group said.
Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief, Walid Al-Omari, accused the Israeli army of trying to escape responsibility. “This is clearly an attempt to circumvent the opening of a criminal investigation,” he told this agency.
The 51-year-old Palestinian-American had covered the West Bank for two decades. Abu Akleh was a well-known face across the Arab world. The Palestinians, and Abu Akleh’s family, have accused Israel of intentionally killing her. Her death remains a major point of contention between the sides.
The official said the military could not conclusively determine where the fire emanated from. He said there may have been Palestinian gunmen in the same area as the Israeli soldier. But he said the soldier shot the journalist ‘with very high likelihood’ and did so by mistake.
The official did not explain why witness accounts and videos showed no militant activity in the area, as well as no gunfire in the vicinity until the barrage that struck Abu Akleh and wounded another reporter. He also did not say why the investigation had taken some four months, though he said the Israeli military chief asked for more information after an initial probe.
Abu Akleh’s family criticised the investigation, saying the army ‘tried to obscure the truth and avoid responsibility’ for the killing. “Our family is not surprised by this outcome since it’s obvious to anyone that Israeli war criminals cannot investigate their own crimes. However, we remain deeply hurt, frustrated and disappointed,” they said in a statement.
