The United States on Monday called on Israel to be held accountable and not to repeat “accidents” such as the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, after the Israeli military admitted that it may have shot the reporter “by mistake”.
“We value Israel’s investigation of this tragic accident and again underscore the importance of accountability in this case and policies and protocols in place to prevent similar accidents in the future,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Price gave as an example the plan approved by the US Department of Defense at the end of August that seeks to avoid civilian casualties during army operations and offered to share it with Israeli authorities and all their allies.
“It is a U.S. priority to mitigate civilian harm caused by military operations,” the spokesman said.
Abu Akleh, who also had U.S. citizenship, said she was a “courageous reporter, whose journalism and her search for the truth earned her the respect of the public around the world.”
“Our thoughts are with Abu Akleh’s family as they mourn this terrible loss and with all the people around the world who for more than two decades watched the Shireen news,” he said.
The Israeli military admitted on Monday that it may have shot Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh “by mistake” but announced that it will not open a criminal investigation into her death, saying its troops acted correctly while being shot by Palestinian militants.
According to the investigation, “there is a high possibility” that Abu Akleh “was accidentally hit by army fire on suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen,” as troops were shot from multiple directions on May 11 in the northern occupied West Bank.
This version is contradicted by witnesses present on the ground, several media investigations or videos of the verified events, where there is no record of the presence of Palestinian militiamen in the area, nor of the troops being shot in the minutes before the lethal shot that killed the Palestinian journalist.
The journalist’s family said they were “hurt, frustrated and disappointed” by Israel’s decision not to open a criminal investigation, while the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) accused Israel of “evading its responsibility for that murder.”
Weeks ago, the United States supervised an examination of the bullet that killed the journalist and determined that it was “probably” fired by Israeli forces, although the analysis did not yield definitive results and Washington demanded that Israel release its investigations.
According to Israeli media, Barbara Leaf, the U.S. envoy for Middle East affairs, visiting Israel last week, pushed for Israel to publish its own investigation.
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