Israeli forces deliberately killed Shireen Abu Akleh, report shows
Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in May while reporting from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on May 11, was deliberately and repeatedly targeted, a new report released on Tuesday concludes.
The report, a collaboration between Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and the U.K.-based research agency Forensic Architecture, confirms the findings of several earlier independent probes on the incident, including by the United Nations, which have found that Israeli forces were responsible for Abu Akleh’s killing, with the U.N. noting that the bullet that killed her was “well aimed.”
The new report includes a detailed digital reconstruction of the incident based on previously unseen footage recorded by Al Jazeera staff at the scene, in addition to witness testimony, open-source video, and a drone survey of the area, offering the most conclusive account yet of what happened that day.
The report clearly shows that there were neither armed Palestinians nor shots fired in the minutes leading up to Abu Akleh’s killing.
Instead, the report shows that Abu Akleh’s and her colleagues’ “PRESS” insignia was clearly visible from the position of the Israeli occupation forces’ shooter; that the shooter had a “clear line of fire,” indicating “precise aim”; and that the firing continued as the journalists sought shelter. After Abu Akleh was hit, a civilian attempting to provide aid to her was fired upon each time he tried to approach her.
“This is literally the last nail in the coffin of what the army is arguing,” the Forensic Architecture researcher in charge of the investigation, who asked not to be named because of fear for their safety when working in the region, told The Intercept.
“We can prove conclusively that there was no one — zero persons — in between the occupation forces and Shireen,” they added. “There were no bullets, in sound or visually, so it’s not that the army was responding to anything. We can also show using visibility analysis that we’ve done in our model, that the shooting only happened when they were within the visible range of the army, which means that it was fully intentional.”
NEW Investigation by FA and @alhaq_org's FAI Unit into the 11 May extrajudicial killing of Shireen Abu Akleh uses previously unseen footage provided by @AJArabic and advanced spatial and audio analysis to reveal conclusive evidence. Full investigation: https://t.co/LXEaNn3aMf 1/9 pic.twitter.com/K3esdoJ8kt
— Forensic Architecture (@ForensicArchi) September 20, 2022
The new report was presented at a press conference in The Hague, the seat of the International Criminal Court, on Tuesday, when the International Federation of Journalists, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and International Center of Justice for Palestinians filed a complaint with the court on behalf of Abu Akleh’s family and journalist Ali Al Samoudi, who was also shot during the same incident. In April, the groups had submitted another request for the court to launch an investigation into the systematic targeting, maiming, and killing of journalists in Palestine. Abu Akleh’s killing came just days after the ICC acknowledged receipt of that complaint.
