Geneva (QNN)- The United Nations has announced that information it had gathered showed that the bullets that killed Al Jazeera’s veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 were fired by Israeli forces.
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Ravina Shamdasani, told reporters in Geneva on Friday, “All information we have gathered is consistent with the finding that the shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians.”
Shamdasani added that the information the OHCHR had gathered had revealed no “activity by armed Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the journalists”.
Shamdasani noted that the OHCHR’s investigation had shown that Abu Akleh and her fellow journalists had made a concerted effort to be visible as members of the press to Israeli occupation soldiers positioned further down the street.
“The journalists said they chose a side street for their approach to avoid the location of armed Palestinians inside the camp and that they proceeded slowly in order to make their presence visible to the Israeli forces deployed down the street,” Shamdasani said.
“Our findings indicate that no warnings were issued and no shooting was taking place at that time and at that location.”
“Several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards them [the journalists] from the direction of the Israeli security forces.”
Shamdasani added that bullets continued to be fired at an unarmed man who tried to come to Abu Akleh’s aid, as well as a journalist who was sheltering behind a tree.
The OHCHR head Michelle Bachelet also continued to urge Israeli occupation authorities to open a criminal investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing, according to Shamdasani.
Shamdasani also pointed out that Israeli occupation forces have killed 58 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including 13 children, since the start of this year, adding that “international human rights law requires prompt, thorough, transparent, independent and impartial investigation into all use of force resulting in death or serious injury. Perpetrators must be held to account.”
51-year-old Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the head while she was covering an Israeli military raid into the Jenin refugee camp despite wearing a press vest on May 11, sparking international outrage and calls for accountability for attacks on journalists. The slain journalist covered events and Israeli aggressions in the occupied Palestinian territory for 25 years.
Multiple witnesses said that Israeli forces killed the veteran journalist. Reports by the investigative group Bellingcat, The Associated Press, CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times have also come to the same conclusion.
The CNN investigation in May said evidence suggests that the veteran journalist was killed in a “targeted attack by Israeli forces”.
Al Jazeera Media Network also announced on May 26 that it had assigned a legal team to refer the killing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
A probe by the Palestinian Authority found that Abu Akleh was deliberately shot by Israeli forces.
