Days of Palestine – Jerusalem

The Israeli occupation is not planning to investigate the killing of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, according to Hebrew media, leading her family to reiterate their call for a transparent probe into her shooting.

Israel’s Occupation Military Police Criminal Investigation Division believes an investigation that treats Israeli soldiers as suspects will lead to opposition within Israeli society, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported on Thursday.

Abu Akleh, 51, was killed by an Israeli soldier last Wednesday, according to witnesses and colleagues who were present when she was shot while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

In response to the report, Abu Akleh’s family said they were not surprised by the Israeli military potentially not investigating her death.

“We were expecting this from the Israeli side. That’s why we didn’t want them to participate in the investigation,” the family said in a statement to Al Jazeera. “We want to hold whoever is responsible for these acts accountable.”

“We urge the United States in particular – since she is a US citizen – and the international community to open a just and transparent investigation and to put an end to the killings.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration and the UN security council have called for a transparent investigation.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, promised her family that Washington would demand that her death be properly investigated.

Israeli occupation authorities must end unlawful killings, willful injury, arbitrary arrests, torture, and other ill-treatment, persecution, and collective punishment against Palestinians, including many children, Amnesty International said in a public statement published today.

In the latest incident, Palestinian journalist Shirin Abu Akleh was shot in the head on 11 May while covering an Israeli military raid in the city of Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank. Palestinians have been killed or injured as a result of the Israeli forces’ use of excessive force when policing protests or carrying out search and arrest raids. Some Palestinians appear to have been killed in acts that amount to extrajudicial executions, which constitute a crime under international law, Amnesty stated.

“The killing of veteran journalist Shirin Abu Akleh is a bloody reminder of the deadly system in which Israel locks Palestinians. Israel is killing Palestinians left and right with impunity. How many more need to be killed before the international community acts to hold Israel accountable for the continuing crimes against humanity?” said Saleh Higazi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The veteran reporter, who lived in occupied East Jerusalem, was a US citizen. She spent nearly three decades covering the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.