Almost two weeks have passed since the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead – but it is still unclear who killed her.
The news agency AP’s reconstruction of the incident supports the claim that an Israeli soldier fired the deadly bullet.
The 51-year-old Al Jazeera journalist was shot dead while reporting a raid on the occupied West Bank. At the same time, another Palestinian journalist was injured.
Palestinian witnesses, public officials and even on-the-spot journalists have stated that Abu Akleh was killed by bullets from Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military says the journalist was killed in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians.
Several videos and photos from the day Abu Akleh was killed show reporters and other spectators taking refuge from bullets coming from the same direction where an Israeli vehicle column is parked.
Interviewed reporters who were on site
The AP has interviewed reporters who were at the scene before Abu Akleh was shot dead. They state that when they arrived at the area with the Israeli military’s vehicle column, it was calm at the site.
“We went out into the open so that they would see us,” Al Jazeera journalist Ali Samoudi told AP.
– They gave us no sign that we were leaving, so we walked slowly around 20 meters.
Local photographer Shatha Hanaysheh states that they stayed for about five to ten minutes standing where the soldiers could see them. A video that seems to capture the first shot supports her data. When Abu Akleh was then shot, she appeared to be dying immediately.
– We saw that the shots came from the military, says photographer Shatha Hanaysheh.
Two possibilities
The Israeli military’s first investigation into the shooting came up with two possibilities. According to the first, armed Palestinians have carelessly fired hundreds of shots, one of which was able to hit Abu Akleh. The AP has not found anything to support that scenario. But the second option seems more reasonable, according to the news agency.
Israeli military spokesman Amnon Shefler says at least one Palestinian armed man was between soldiers and journalists, near Abu Akleh. The Palestinian is said to have fired several times at one of the military vehicles, and a soldier must then have responded to the shots with his rifle.
The military’s investigation into the incident now focuses on the soldier’s rifle, but the military states that it can not be safe without comparing the bullet to the weapon.
“Without the opportunity to investigate the bullet, doubts remain,” military chief prosecutor Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi said on Monday.
Ballistic examination
All the witnesses that the AP has spoken to insist that there were no armed Palestinians in the area between the reporters and the military. The area is mostly open, but an armed man could possibly have taken cover without being seen near where the journalists were.
The videos showing the whereabouts of the journalists show no armed Palestinians.
Israel has offered to conduct a ballistic investigation into the deadly bullet in the presence of US and Palestinian experts, but the Palestinian Authority has refused, saying the Israeli military is “fully responsible” for the journalist’s death.