According to the UN’s human rights office, a high-profile Al Jazeera journalist was killed by Israeli forces, not Palestinian militants.
According to a spokeswoman, the findings were the result of “independent monitoring” of the incident on May 11.
Shireen Abu Aqla was killed while reporting on an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, causing widespread outrage.
Israelis have been blamed by Palestinians. According to Israel, blame cannot yet be assigned.
When the 51-year-old Palestinian-American journalist, one of the region’s most experienced and admired correspondents, was killed, there was widespread outrage.
Abu Aqla was shot on a road near a gun battle between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants while wearing a protective vest with the word “Press” and a helmet.
Following a wave of deadly attacks against Israelis by Palestinians, two of whom came from the Jenin district, the Israeli military said its forces had gone into Jenin to apprehend “terrorist suspects.
According to eyewitnesses, the fatal shot was fired by Israeli forces, though Israel denies this. It claims that it has yet to determine the source of the gunfire because the Palestinians refused to examine the bullet that killed Abu Aqla or conduct a joint investigation.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday that the department had discovered that “the shots that killed Abu Aqla and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians, as initially claimed by Israeli authorities.”
“It is deeply troubling that Israeli authorities have not carried out a criminal investigation,” she added.
According to Ms. Shamdasani, the information came from the Israeli military and the Palestinian attorney general.
According to her, four journalists turned into a street on the morning of the incident, where “several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards them from the direction of the Israeli security forces.”
“One bullet hit Ali Sammoudi in the shoulder; another hit Abu Aqla in the head and killed her instantly.”
Previously, Israel has vehemently rejected such conclusions as unprovable. It claims it cannot determine whether the fatal shot was fired by its forces or Palestinian militants because the Palestinians have refused to cooperate.
The Israeli army is conducting its investigation.
Israel claims to have identified a soldier’s weapon as the source of the shot, but that it cannot be certain without analyzing the bullet. The Palestinians claim they will not hand over the land because they do not trust Israel.
According to Ms Shamdasani, the OHCHR “found no evidence that there was activity by armed Palestinians near the journalists.”
A Palestinian investigation concluded last month that Abu Aqla was intentionally killed by an Israeli soldier.
The report was dismissed by Israel’s defense minister as “a blatant lie.”
