Bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh to be examined in US

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestinian Attorney-General Akram al-Khatib has said that a US team will examine the bullet that killed trailblazing Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

“A US team has already arrived to conduct the forensic examination of the bullet at the US Embassy in Jerusalem,” al-Khatib said.

He further elaborated that the bullet will be returned to the Palestinians after the examination, and that there will be no Israeli participation in the analysis.

“The bullet will never be given to the Israeli side for examination,” he added.

An Israeli military spokesman had earlier said that Israeli experts will examine the bullet with the Americans.

The Palestinian Authority had handed the bullet that killed Abu Akleh to US officials to conduct a forensic examination on July 2.

On May 11, Abu Akleh, 51, was covering an Israeli military raid near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when she was shot dead.

While Palestinian officials and her employer Al Jazeera accused Israel of killing the reporter, Tel Aviv denied any responsibility. However, mounting evidence has surfaced suggesting Israeli culpability in the tragic killing.

Palestinian officials have rejected an Israeli request for conducting a joint investigation into the journalist’s death.

On May 26, al-Khatib announced that an examination of Abu Akleh’s body confirmed that she was killed by an armor-piercing projectile fired directly at her head by an Israeli sniper.

Several leading media agencies, including Al Jazeera, CNN, Associated Press, Washington Post, and the New York Times, conducted their own investigations, which all came to the conclusion that Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli bullet. However, Israel persists in flat denial of any involvement in the heinous murder.