Israel: 'Highly probable' Abu Akleh was killed by our soldier

It is “highly probable” that Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier, the occupation’s army admitted today.

The army had previously maintained that Abu Akleh was killed by “Palestinian militants” even though independent probes found that she had been “deliberately targeted” by Israeli occupation forces in Jenin.

In spite of its admission today, the Israeli army maintains that it cannot rule out that Abu Akleh could have been killed by Palestinian gunfire, but says it is more likely an Israeli soldier was responsible for her murder.No investigation into any soldier’s involvement in the Al Jazeera journalist’s murder will be opened by the Israeli army because “there is no suspicion that a criminal offense was committed,” the Israeli Military Advocate General’s Office said.

According to the Israeli probe into Abu Akleh’s death, Palestinian gunmen were standing near the journalist’s position and firing at occupation forces and a soldier thought Abu Akleh was part of the armed militants and shot her through a telescopic scope.”

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It cannot be unequivocally determined who shot her,” a high-ranking Israeli army official said, according to Haaretz.

Israel assassinated Abu Akleh on 11 May while she was covering the occupation army’s storming of Jenin refugee camp. The 51-year-old was wearing a flak jacket clearly displaying the word “PRESS” and had a helmet on, but was still shot in the head by an Israeli sniper. Her colleagues were also shot at as they tried to rescue her.

Pallbearers at her funeral were also beaten with batons as Israel Police cracked down on her funeral procession as it travelled through occupied East Jerusalem.