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“[I]t seems that it isn’t potential to unequivocally decide the supply of the gunfire which hit and killed Ms. Abu Akleh. However, there’s a excessive risk that Ms. Abu Akleh was unintentionally hit by IDF gunfire fired towards suspects recognized as armed Palestinian gunmen throughout an change of fireplace,” the IDF mentioned in an announcement.
But the Israeli navy doesn’t intend to pursue prison expenses or prosecutions of any of the troopers concerned, IDF’s Military Advocate General’s Office mentioned Monday in a separate assertion.
“After a complete examination of the incident, and primarily based on all of the findings introduced, the Military Advocate General decided that below the circumstances of the incident, regardless of the dire outcome — the demise of Ms. Abu Akleh and Mr. Samudi’s damage — there was no suspicion of a prison offense that warrants the opening of an MPCID investigation,” the assertion mentioned.
“The resolution was primarily based on the findings of the evaluate, which decided that IDF troopers solely aimed hearth at those that have been recognized as armed terrorists throughout the incident. As such, there was no suspicion {that a} bullet was fired intentionally at anybody recognized as a civilian and particularly at anybody recognized as a journalist,” the assertion mentioned.
“When they have been firing in that course, the troopers weren’t conscious they have been firing at journalists. They thought they have been firing at militants firing at them,” the IDF official mentioned.
Al Jazeera, Abu Akleh’s employer, has constantly asserted that the Israeli navy is answerable for her demise.
When requested about investigations, together with CNN’s, that discovered no militants close to Abu Akleh when she was killed, the official mentioned: “It is our estimate that there have been militants within the neighborhood of Ms. Abu Abkleh. Maybe not one meter beside her however they have been in that space,” however the official didn’t present proof to assist that declare.
“When the soldier made that call, it was a blink of a call,” the official mentioned. “The soldier didn’t intend to injure an Al Jazeera journalist or [journalist] from some other community.”
“The soldier is sorry, and I’m sorry. This was not alleged to occur and it mustn’t occur. He didn’t do that on objective,” the official mentioned. He didn’t identify the soldier.
When she was killed, Abu Akleh was accompanied by a bunch of different journalists, together with her producer Ali al-Samoudi, who was wounded within the incident.
In Monday’s briefing with reporters, the senior IDF official mentioned the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was too badly broken to have the ability to determine which gun fired it, the identical conclusion a US-led forensic investigation got here to.
However, the IDF has concluded that the soldier who probably fired the deadly shot was to the south of Abu Akleh in an armored navy automobile with restricted vary of sight, didn’t determine Abu Akleh as a journalist and thought he was capturing at militants.
The official mentioned troopers within the space had been below hearth “for an hour and fifteen minutes” earlier than Abu Akleh was killed.
Asked why the gunfire appeared to proceed even after Abu Akleh fell, the official mentioned they counted not more than seven bullets fired after she was shot. There have been Israeli drones filming throughout the operation, the official mentioned, however not in a excessive sufficient decision to have the ability to see the deadly shot.
In the preliminary aftermath of Abu Akleh’s demise, Israeli officers first posited that it was probably indiscriminate Palestinian militant gunfire that killed her, earlier than acknowledging it was potential Israeli gunfire was answerable for her demise.
In their report on Monday, the IDF left open the chance that Abu Akleh “was hit by bullets fired by armed Palestinian gunmen towards the course of the realm wherein she was current.”
According to the Palestinian post-mortem, Abu Akleh was killed by a single bullet to the again of the pinnacle.
Shireen Abu Akleh’s household slammed the IDF investigation, saying Israel had “refused to take accountability for murdering Shireen,” and referred to as for an impartial US investigation.
The report “tried to obscure the reality and keep away from accountability for killing Shireen Abu Akleh, our aunt, sister, greatest good friend, journalist, and a Palestinian American,” the household mentioned in an announcement despatched to CNN.
“We’ve recognized for over 4 months now that an Israeli soldier shot and killed Shireen as numerous investigations carried out by CNN, the Associated Press, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, Al-Haq, B’tselem, the United Nations, and others have all concluded,” the assertion mentioned.
“And but, as anticipated, Israel has refused to take accountability for murdering Shireen. Our household is just not stunned by this consequence because it’s apparent to anybody that Israeli conflict criminals can’t examine their very own crimes. However, we stay deeply damage, annoyed, and disenchanted.”
“Since Shireen was killed our household has referred to as for an intensive, impartial, and credible US investigation that results in accountability, which is the naked minimal the US authorities ought to do for considered one of their very own residents. We will proceed to demand that the US authorities comply with by way of with its said commitments to accountability. Accountability requires motion.
The US Security Coordinator — who leads an inter-agency workforce that coordinates with the Israeli authorities and the PA — “discovered no purpose to imagine that this was intentional however quite the results of tragic circumstances throughout an IDF-led navy operation towards factions of Palestinian Islamic Jihad on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, which adopted a collection of terrorist assaults in Israel,” based on an announcement on the time from the State Department.
The IDF has been finishing up common raids within the West Bank, particularly within the Jenin space, focusing on what it says are militants and weapons caches. The raid in Jenin when Abu Akleh was killed got here shortly after a months-long wave of assaults by Palestinians that left 19 Israelis and foreigners dead. Some of the suspected assailants of these assaults have been from Jenin, based on the Israeli navy.
