News channel CNN has concluded, following its own investigation, that Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by targeted bullets from the Israeli army. Shireen was shot dead two weeks ago while reporting an army raid in the north of the West Bank. The Israeli army does not want to investigate this criminally, it was reported last week.
CNN spoke to eyewitnesses and experts and analyzed photos, videos and audio clips from the moments surrounding Shireen’s death. This establishes, among other things, that Shireen was shot from 200 meters away, which corresponds to the distance at which an Israeli army vehicle was standing. Armed Palestinians would be too far away to hit her.
In addition, three bullet impacts were found in a tree right next to where she was shot, which according to an analyst indicate targeted fire.
Palestinian journalist Shatha Hanaysha, who was the first to arrive at Shireen after the shooting, felt they were being deliberately shot. “I think they wanted to kill us. I don’t know why they were shooting otherwise and they knew we were journalists,” she told CNN.
AP news agency previously made a similar reconstruction. It also supports the view that the bullet that killed Shireen came from an Israeli rifle.
New video evidence and eyewitness testimony suggests the Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, was shot in a targeted attack by Israeli forces https://t.co/v47b6XeOPi
— CNN (@CNN) May 25, 2022
Palestinian activists and journalists and news platform Al Jazeera have been saying that from the start. However, the Israeli military maintains that it is not clear who shot Shireen. No agreement was reached on an independent investigation. Both the Palestinian and Israeli authorities are now conducting their own investigations.
Shireen Abu Akleh was shot while wearing a bulletproof vest with “press” on it, as were the other journalists present. She was then rushed to hospital, where it was later announced that she had died.
Shireen was a much-loved journalist who had worked at Al Jazeera since 1997. Her death sparked outrage worldwide. Those feelings of anger and sadness were heightened when Shireen’s funeral in occupied East Jerusalem was brutally disrupted by the Israeli military.
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