Israel admits ‘high possibility’ that journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by its military

Israel on Monday said there was a high possibility that Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by shots fired by its army.

Akleh was shot dead on May 11 when she was covering an Israeli raid in Jenin, State of Palestine. The city lies in the West Bank, which was captured by the Israeli military in 1967 during the Mideast War. The Palestinians want it back to form their future state. While Al Jazeera had alleged that the Israeli forces deliberately shot Akleh, Tel Aviv denied the claims.

In its final investigation report on the death, the Israel Defence Forces on Monday said that it was not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire which hit Akleh.

“However, there is a high possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire that was fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire...”

However, Israel will not conduct a criminal investigation into the shooting as there was “no suspicion of a criminal offence”, the report noted.

Meanwhile, Akleh’s family and her employer Al Jazeera have rejected the findings of the Israeli report.

“As expected, Israel has refused to take responsibility for murdering Shireen,” the journalist’s family said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera. “Our family is not surprised by this outcome since it’s obvious to anyone the Israeli war criminals cannot investigate their own crimes.”

Al Jazeera, in its statement, observed that the “elusive admission” by Israel was an attempt to “evade the criminal responsibility for the killing” of Akleh.

In June, a United Nations report also held that the journalist was killed due to bullets fired by the Israeli military. Several “seemingly well-aimed bullets” were fired at her even after Akleh made efforts to show that she was a member of the press, the UN investigation showed.