Salim Awad, a Jenin resident who filmed the incident, told CNN that there were no armed Palestinians in the area.
Evidence suggests that Palestinian American journalist for Al Jazeera Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in a targeted attack by Israeli troops in Jenin, according to a new report from CNN published Tuesday evening.
Abu Akleh, 51, from Beit Hanina in northeastern Jerusalem, was shot in the head while covering an IDF raid in Jenin in the West Bank on May 11.
The IDF said it had entered the Jenin refugee camp on the outskirts of Burkin to detain terrorist suspects and was met by “widespread and uncontrolled gunfire” and improvised explosive devices. Abu Akleh was killed toward the end of the raid.
Condemnations quickly came out against Israel for her death, and IDF Military Advocate-General Brig.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi on Monday said the military must fully investigate her death.
However, he noted that the Palestinians’ refusal to allow Israel access to the bullet that killed her “leaves doubt regarding the circumstances of her death.”
Witness accounts
Salim Awad, a Jenin resident who filmed the incident, told CNN that there were no armed Palestinians in the area.
“There was no conflict or confrontations at all. We were about 10 guys, give or take, walking around, laughing and joking with the journalists,” he told CNN. “We were not afraid of anything. We didn’t expect anything would happen, because when we saw journalists around, we thought it’d be a safe area.”
Rather, he claimed that shots were fired at Abu Akleh and three other journalists as they approached IDF vehicles.
Another individual at the scene, Jamal Huwail, a professor at Jenin’s Arab American University and former Fatah lawmaker who helped move Abu Akleh’s body, told CNN that “They were shooting directly at the journalists.”
Israeli reactions
Israel has denied intentionally shooting Abu Akleh and the IDF responded to the CNN report early Wednesday morning.
“The IDF has been investigating the circumstances of the reporter’s death in a thorough manner since the incident. The interim investigation revealed it was not possible to determine the source of the shooting,” the IDF said in a statement. “The claim that the shooting was intentional has no basis.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post