Israel reportedly investigating whether an IDF soldier killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

(Image credit: HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

published 12 May 2022

The Israeli military is reportedly investigating the possibility that one of its soldiers killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was fatally shot Wednesday during an Israeli raid in West Bank, The Washington Post reports, citing an Israel Defense Forces official.

The investigation concerns three different shooting incidents following the death of Abu Akleh, a longtime correspondent for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel, and "the wounding of her producer in the Jenin Refugee Camp on Wednesday," the Post writes. Recognizing that its troops could be responsible for the death marks a "significant backtrack," the Post story notes, from Israel's initial claim that Abu Akleh was most likely hit by Palestinian fire. Al Jazeera and Palestinian authorities blamed Israel in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

The bullet that killed Abu Akleh has also become a "central point of contention" in the incident, reports The New York Times, in that the Palestinian Authority has declined to give it to Israeli officials and plans to investigate the journalist's death independently. Israel, meanwhile, has called for "a joint inquiry and for the bullet to be assessed in an Israeli laboratory," the Times writes. The shape of the bullet could reveal the type of gun used, and the condition of the bullet might indicate the direction and distance it was fired from.

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Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.

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