The bullet that killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank in May was most likely fired by an Israeli military member, but the bullet is too damaged to confirm with 100% certainty.
The State Department said that damage to the bullet made it too difficult to draw a definitive conclusion about what gun it was fired from.
But shots fired came from where the Israel Defense Forces were, making Israel “likely responsible for the death,” a state department statement said.
Palestinian officials said the journalist, who was Palestinian-American, was shot intentionally by an Israeli soldier. She had been wearing a bright blue press flack jacket, as is the norm for journalists in war zones.
The Israeli government tried early on to cast doubt about who shot the gun, Saying that it could have come from an Israeli soldier or from a Palestinian gunman.
But vast amounts of data and surveillance and satellite footage, analyzed by expert organizations including Bellingcat, show the bullet came from a location where an Israeli convoy was that morning.
A monthlong investigation by the New York Times also found that the bullet was fired from the approximate location of the Israeli military convoy, making it most likely a shot by a soldier from an elite unit. This corroborates eyewitness accounts.
The Palestinian Authority had the bullet after retrieving it from Abu Akleh’s autopsy. They refused to hand the bullet over to the Israeli government. And the Israeli government refused to give Palestine a rifle to match it with.
The United States was drawn into the standoff after both sides refused to hand one item over to the other. It comes one week before President Joe Biden visits Israel and the West Bank, making it his first visit to the region as the head of state.
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