LONDON: US officials remain deeply divided over the 2022 killing by Israel of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank, with new revelations suggesting the State Department delivered an “equivocal assessment” intentionally, and “soft-pedaled to appease Israel,” The New York Times reported on Monday.
Abu Akleh, a celebrated Al Jazeera journalist, was shot while wearing a blue press vest as she covered an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
Though initial Israeli statements blamed Palestinian gunmen, the regime’s military — under intense pressure from the international community — later acknowledged that she was very likely shot by an Israeli soldier who “misidentified” her.
Col. Steve Gabavics, a retired US military policeman involved in the investigation, told the NYT he was certain the Israeli sniper knew he was targeting a journalist — even if not Abu Akleh specifically.
Based on military radio records, the journalists’ visible location, and the precision of the shots, Gabavics stressed the evidence strongly pointed to a deliberate act.
