U.S. officials have concluded that gunfire from Israeli positions likely killed Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh but that there was “no reason to believe” her shooting was intentional, the State Department said Monday. (USA Today / AP)
That conclusion came “by summarizing both” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian Authority (PA) investigations—probes to which the U.S. Security Coordinator was granted “full access” over the past several weeks, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said. (CNN)
The bullet that killed the veteran Al Jazeera reporter in the occupied West Bank in May was so badly damaged that a forensic analysis overseen by U.S. officials “could not reach a definitive conclusion” about its origin, according to the statement by Price. (NBC News)
A well-known figure in the Arab world, Abu Akleh, 51, was shot in the head in the West Bank city of Jenin during what her colleagues at the scene said was a burst of Israeli gunfire on a group of journalists covering an IDF raid. Abu Akleh was wearing a helmet and protective vest clearly marked “press.” (The Guardian)
A monthlong investigation by The New York Times found that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh had been fired from the approximate location of an Israeli military convoy early that morning, most likely by a soldier from an elite unit, corroborating eyewitness reports from the scene. (NYT)