Israel’s military police<\/u> have reportedly decided not to open any criminal investigation into the fatal shooting of the Palestinian American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, even though newly released video appears to contradict the Israeli army’s claim that the journalist was standing close to Palestinian militants when she was shot last week in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
Amos Harel, the senior military correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, reported<\/a> on Thursday that the decision not to investigate the Israeli soldiers who might have fired the fatal shot came after an internal review by the commando unit of the Israel Defense Forces “found six instances of IDF gunfire at armed Palestinians who were near Abu Akleh” as she reported on an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in Jenin.<\/p>\n According to Harel, the criminal investigations division of the Israeli army simply accepted the accounts of the soldiers who opened fire but “testified that they did not see the journalist at all and aimed their fire at gunmen, who were indeed nearby.”<\/p>\n However, within hours of Harel’s report, video posted on Twitter by Rushdi Abualouf, a Palestinian journalist for the BBC, appeared to contradict the claim that Abu Akleh was near any Palestinian gunmen engaged in a firefight with Israeli troops. The clip shows that Abu Akleh and several other journalists, all wearing blue vests marked “Press,” were instead walking in the direction of the Israeli soldiers, as young men behind them stood around talking and joking, when shots suddenly rang out and Abu Akleh and a colleague were both hit.<\/p>\n New video shows the last few seconds before #ShereenAbuAkleh<\/a> was shot killed , there was no shooting, and people were milling around in a relaxed way, her family accused idf but #Israel<\/a> said the fatal shot could have come its forces or #Palestinian<\/a> militants. pic.twitter.com\/XjlRWLlSgN<\/a><\/p>\n — Rushdi Abualouf (@Rushdibbc) May 19, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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