Palestinians condemn US report into Al Jazeera journalist’s death

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Palestinians have condemned the results of a US investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Abu Akleh, 51, was a trailblazing Palestinian journalist who was shot dead on May 11 while covering an Israeli military raid near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

While Palestinian officials and her employer Al Jazeera have produced convincing evidence implicating Israel in the killing, Tel Aviv denies any responsibility.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority said it had handed the bullet that killed Abu Akleh to a US team to conduct a forensic examination.

The US, however, has said that there was no “definitive conclusion” on the origin of the bullet. It, however, concluded that the gunfire from the Israeli position was “likely responsible” for the reporter’s death.

‘Attempt to exonerate the occupation’

“This report is an attempt to exonerate the (Israeli) occupation from the crime of assassinating Abu Akleh,” Shaimaa Marzouq, a member of the Forum of Palestinian Journalists, told a press conference in Gaza City.

“This report is totally unprofessional. It’s a security and political report and cannot be accepted. It proves the US bias towards the Israeli occupation,” she added.

Human rights activist Salah Abdel-Ati said the US report was “an attempt to cover up the crime of Abu Akleh’s killing.”

On May 26, Palestinian Attorney-General Akram al-Khatib had 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 had been target-killed by an Israeli bullet.