Al-Jazeera TV star journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed recently in the occupied West Bank, was shot by an Israeli soldier with a sniper rifle, the Palestinian chief prosecutor concluded on Thursday.
The Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas and the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera have accused Israel of killing Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 near the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of Palestinian armed factions where Palestinians carried out attacks. Israeli forces that day.
On Thursday night, the Palestinian Authority’s chief prosecutor, Akram Al-Khatib, announced the conclusions of his report at a press conference in Ramallah.
According to this report, Shireen Abu Akleh was the target of a 5.56 mm caliber bullet of a Ruger M40, an American sniper rifle.
The American-Palestinian journalist wore a bullet-proof jacket on which the word was written hurry up and a protective helmet when a bullet hit him just below the cup of his helmet.
Another journalist at the site was shot and wounded. And three more bullets hit a nearby tree, the prosecutor said, saying all five projectiles came from the same weapon.
According to an AFP journalist in the area, no Palestinian fighter was near the group of reporters posted in an open area at the entrance of the camp.
According to the Palestinian prosecutor, an Israeli forces jeep was 200 meters from the journalists and the bullets fired at approximately 170-180 meters.
Traces on the tree were concentrated at a height of 127-178 cm, indicating that the shooter aimed at the upper body with the intent to kill., did he declare. Traces of three bullets can still be seen in the tree trunk, an AFP team found this week.
” All these facts: the type of projectile, the weapon, the distance, the fact that there are no obstructions in sight and that he is wearing a press jacket […] leading us to conclude that (Shireen) Abu Akleh was the target of assassination. The only source of fire was the occupying forces of Israel. “
In an investigation released earlier this week, the American channel CNN also pointed to Israeli responsibility.
The number of marks on Shireen’s main stand shows that it was not a random shot, but a targeted shot.said the channel, Chris Cobb-Smith, a security consultant and ballistics expert.
Thursday night, the new Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hussein Al-Sheikh, announced that he had sent the report of this Palestinian investigation to the American authorities.
According to the Israeli preliminary investigation, it was impossible to immediately determine the source of the shooting that killed the Al-Jazeera journalist.
The Jewish state has rejected calls for an international investigation, citing seriously of its internal legal proceedings, while the Palestinian Authority refused to cooperate with the Israeli investigation.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz called Thursday night a any claim that the Israeli military intentionally targeted journalists or uninvolved civilians is explicitly false in violence, attacked the Palestinian report and the CNN investigation.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense did not make public the report of its soldiers operating in the Jenin area at the time of the tragedy.
Source: Radio-Canada
