![]() Video footage posted to Facebook just moments after the first reports of Abu Akleh’s death emerged shows IDF forces arriving at a position that stretched approximately 190 to 250 metres south from where she was fatally shot. Other social media images and video, as well as an audio analysis commissioned by Bellingcat, also appear broadly consistent with aspects of witness testimony. The location of the gunmen depicted in social media videos is also either much further away from Abu Akleh than the IDF troops were, or not in any position to see or target her location. ![]() Yet the gunshots that can be heard as a man is filmed attempting to retrieve Abu Akleh’s body in the moments after her death are not wild, but slow and deliberate, suggesting targeting rather than a spray of bullets aimed at another object or person. Social media video does appear to show gunmen letting off rapid bursts of gunfire from an alleyway, potentially towards IDF troops. The same IDF statement also posited that gunmen fired at IDF forces, and could have hit Abu Akleh in the process. This version of events would also mean that all of the witnesses and journalists at the scene did not see or neglected to mention the position of any such fighters along the narrow road that separated them from Israeli soldiers. However, there is no video footage of any other armed men in this street between the IDF and the reporters. While open source photographs and videos alone may not be sufficient to fully establish who fired the shot that killed Abu Akleh, they can begin to build a picture of how events at the scene unfolded and be compared to official statements and testimonies to see if any inconsistencies exist.įor example, the IDF interim report suggested there could have been combatants between the soldiers and Abu Akleh and that an Israeli soldier’s bullet inadvertently hit the journalist. Witnesses - including journalists who were with Abu Akleh when she was killed - claim that IDF soldiers opened fire on them without warning, and that they believe that they were deliberately targeted as journalists.Īlthough the IDF has come to accept the possibility that one of its soldiers may have been responsible, its interim findings, released on May 13, only presented scenarios in which the killing of Abu Akleh was accidental. The Palestinian Authority, as well as Al Jazeera itself, has squarely blamed the Israeli military, whose initial probe on the day of the shooting stated that it was “inconclusive” whether the journalist had been killed by Israeli or Palestinian gunfire. Palestinian figures are widely sceptical as to the impartiality of an Israeli inquiry into Abu Akleh’s killing. But in a later press conference, Israel’s Defence Minister Benny Gantz stated: “It can be Palestinians who shot her. This video evidence shows that Abu Akleh suffered a gunshot wound to the head.Īs can be seen in the videos, Abu Akleh - along with another reporter who was with her at the scene - was wearing a blue vest clearly labelled “PRESS” as well as a helmet.Ī few hours after the journalist was killed, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett initially claimed that there was a “considerable chance” that “armed Palestinians, who fired wildly”, were responsible. The footage shows the chaotic moments after the journalist was shot, including attempts by others to reach her body. The aftermath of Abu Akleh’s killing was captured on videos that were quickly shared on social media. It was one of several raids the Israeli military has conducted in Jenin, some of them deadly, amid rising unrest in recent months. ![]() Abu Akleh was covering a raid that was being conducted by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American journalist working with Al Jazeera, was killed by a gunshot to the head on the morning of while reporting from Jenin, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. ![]()
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