Israel has said it will not cooperate with an FBI investigation into the killing of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli army.
A top Israeli official confirmed the existence of the U.S. investigation into the killing of Abu Akleh but said Israel would not be cooperating with the probe.
Israel’s defense minister Benny Gantz denounced the inquiry, and called it a “mistake.”
Gantz revealed details of the previously unknown investigation by the Justice Department into the death of the Al Jazeera correspondent, who was shot dead during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin in May.
“I have delivered a message to US representatives that we stand by [Israeli] soldiers, that we will not cooperate with an external investigation, and will not enable intervention to internal investigations,” Gantz tweeted on Monday.
An outright failure to cooperate would complicate relations between Israel and reinforce claims of an Israeli cover-up of Abu Akleh’s death as she reported on a military raid on the West Bank city of Jenin in May.
The FBI investigation comes after months of pressure from the highly respected Al-Jazeera journalist’s family, who had accused the Biden administration of “skulking toward the erasure of any wrongdoing by Israeli forces”. The family was backed by dozens of members of Congress.
The IDF admitted in September there was a “high possibility” one of its troops had shot the journalist but said it was impossible to be certain. The IDF’s Military Advocate General said it would not press charges against any soldiers and that there was “no suspicion that a bullet was fired deliberately at anyone identified as a civilian and in particular at anyone identified as a journalist.”
Abu Akleh was wearing a protective vest labeled “Press” on the front and back, at the time of her death. While an IDF official previously said Israeli soldiers believed Palestinian militants were firing at them, CNN’s investigation found that there was no active combat, nor any Palestinian militants, near Abu Akleh in the moments leading up to her death.
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