On 11 May 2022, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed by Israel Defense Forces while covering a raid at the Jenin refugee camp. Witnesses, along with the Qatari media network Al Jazeera, for which Abu Akleh had worked for 25 years, reported that an Israeli soldier shot her in the head. After the shooting, she was taken to the local Ibn Sina Specialized Hospital, where medical personnel pronounced her dead.
Her killing sparked outrage among Palestinians and garnered international attention. Abu Akleh's status as an American citizen prompted the United States to become involved in the investigation. Initially, Israel claimed that she had been killed by "indiscriminate" gunfire from Palestinian militants engaged in combat with Israeli troops. However, they later stated that there was a "high possibility" that Israeli gunfire had "accidentally" hit Abu Akleh while she was at the camp. At the time of her death, she was wearing a blue vest with "PRESS" written in blue letters, which is standard for civilian journalists reporting in combat zones.
Killing
At 7:04 AM on Wednesday, 11 May 2022, Al Jazeera announced that their correspondent, Shireen Abu Akleh, had been injured after being shot by Israeli Defense Forces while covering their incursion and raid on the Jenin camp.
Al Jazeera stated that Shireen was targeted by the Israeli army despite wearing a press vest. They described the incident as "In a tragic act of murder that violates international laws and norms, the Israeli occupation forces have assassinated Shireen" and condemned it as "atrocious". Reports later emerged that Israeli forces deliberately targeted the Al Jazeera crew while they were waiting for the media team in an open area. The forces began firing intensively, even though there had been no gunfire from Palestinians in that vicinity. A Palestinian journalist and colleague of Abu Akhleh, Shatha Hanaysha, alleged that Israeli forces prevented ambulance vehicles from reaching Abu Akleh for rescue. Ali al-Samoudi, another Al Jazeera journalist who was with Abu Akleh, was shot in the back during the incident but survived. He later stated that Abu Akleh had been "cold-bloodedly killed" and that IDF troops continued to fire while she lay on the ground.
In contrast, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli forces initially claimed, "We don't think we killed" Abu Akleh, attributing her death to "indiscriminate" Palestinian gunfire and alleging that responsibility lay with Palestinian militants who opened fire on Israeli soldiers, prompting a retaliatory response. However, multiple eyewitnesses reported that the area was calm before her death and rejected the Israeli statements regarding her killing. Four days later, Haaretz quoted an Israeli official who admitted that "an Israeli soldier opened fire about 190 meters away from Shireen Abu Akleh, and that he was sitting in a jeep armed with a rifle with a telescopic lens, and he may have been the one who hit her."
Al Jazeera's Walid Al-Omari, the director of the channel's office in the Palestinian territories, stated that there had been no gunfire from Palestinian militants. He also confirmed that Abu Akleh was wearing a helmet and had been struck in an exposed area below her ear, indicating that she had been deliberately targeted. Post-shooting video footage clearly showed that she was wearing a blue press vest marked with the word "Press".
Autopsy
The director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at An-Najah National University, Ryan Al-Ali, who performed autopsy on Abu Akleh's body confirmed that there was no evidence indicating that the gunfire came from a distance of less than a meter. Additionally, a deformed projectile was preserved for laboratory examination. The director of the Forensic Medicine Institute in Nablus affirmed that the bullet that struck Abu Akleh was fired directly and fatally into her head. Hours after Abu Akleh's death, Israeli police forcibly entered her residence in Jerusalem, dispersing the gathering outside and using physical force against the demonstrators.
Funeral
Shireen Abu Akleh's body was transported to the Latin Church in Jenin for funeral prayers before being moved from the Forensic Medicine Institute in Nablus to Ramallah at 3:30 PM local time. Abu Akleh's body arrived at Al Jazeera's office in Ramallah after approximately an hour and a half. It was announced that her funeral ceremony would take place the following day, starting from the Palestinian Presidential Headquarters in Al-Bireh city.
At 10:00 AM on Thursday, 12 May, an official procession was held to honor Abu Akleh at the Palestinian Presidency in Ramallah in preparation for her transfer to Jerusalem. Israeli authorities obstructed the funeral procession as it made its way toward Jerusalem. The body arrived after about two hours, and an official farewell ceremony took place despite the Israeli police surrounding several mourners in front of St. Joseph's Hospital, Jerusalem.
Reports indicated that Israeli forces prevented the display of Abu Akleh’s pictures in the Old City of Jerusalem. Her brother, Tony Abu Akleh, stated that authorities prohibited Palestinian flags from being displayed inside the family home. On Friday, 13 May, a large gathering displaying Palestinian flags was held in front of the French Hospital in Jerusalem, where her body had been kept before the funeral. Police surrounded the hospital, closed nearby roads and entrances, and deployed reinforcements in the area.
Al Jazeera correspondent Givara Budeiri reported that Jerusalem police insisted the funeral be conducted without Palestinian flags and that the body be transported by mortuary vehicle. However, mourners insisted on carrying the body on foot. The funeral procession began at 2:00 p.m. from St. Joseph's Hospital, Jerusalem toward the Roman Catholic Church in Jerusalem. Video footage from the scene reportedly showed Israeli forces attempting to disrupt the procession, including physically beating mourners and nearly causing the coffin to fall.
After the police suppression of funeral, the body was taken out of the hospital a second time, this time by hearse. Israeli police once again intercepted the vehicle, removed the Palestinian flag, and blocked mourners from participating. The procession arrived at the Catholic Church at 2:30 pm, where the memorial service began, despite renewed police assaults on participants. Police erected barriers on the route to the cemetery, hindering access as the body was transported from the church to Mount Zion cemetery in Jerusalem. She was buried at around 5:00 pm beside her parents.
Investigations
Haaretz
The Palestinian forensic medicine continued its investigations and collection of evidence into Abu Akleh's death, while the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted a preliminary investigation of the Israeli army that Shireen was 150 meters away from the Duvdevan Unit – an elite unit in the Israeli army. Dozens of bullets were fired, and the newspaper itself confirmed that the bullet that hit Shireen was of 5.56 mm caliber and was fired from an M4 carbine. Additionally, Haaretz stated that some bullets from the Israeli Duvdevan Unit soldiers were fired toward the north where Abu Akleh was located. Haaretz once again quoted Israeli politician Nachman Shai as saying, "Israel's credibility in the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh is not high." The newspaper affirmed that, with her death, "Shireen has become a symbol of the brutality of the Israeli occupation and the violation of press freedom." They elaborated that "the Israeli army and police do not enjoy the confidence of the Palestinians and the world in terms of protecting Palestinian journalists" and that "Israel itself did not provide any evidence that its soldiers did not shoot Shireen Abu Akleh."
Haaretz quoted an Israeli official on 15 May admitting that an elite Israeli soldier in a jeep, armed with a rifle with a telescopic sight, may have been the person who killed Abu Akleh. According to the Israeli official, the soldier accused of assassinating Shireen said during his interrogation that he did not see her and did not know that he had shot her.
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy investigation in which it relied on the opinions of an unnamed Israeli official who stated that it cannot be ruled out that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was fired from the Israeli side. They also reaffirmed to her the results of the initial investigation, some of which had been published by Haaretz, and said that it would be difficult to determine who was responsible for the killing of the Palestinian journalist without obtaining the fatal bullet.
CNN
CNN also published its report, quoting eyewitnesses who confirmed to it that the Israeli soldiers shot the journalists, including Abu Akleh, and that there were no Palestinian gunmen at the scene of the killing. The Washington Post quoted an Israeli official as saying that the army is investigating 3 shootings by its soldiers. As for the Hebrew Walla website, the Israeli army confirmed, at this stage, that its forces had mistakenly targeted Abu Akleh. On the other hand, the commander of the Israeli Central Command admitted that the Israeli soldiers fired indiscriminately in several places, but he denied knowing the exact cause of Abu Akleh's injury, although he did not rule out any possible cause, as he put it.
CNN published an independent report based on the evidence it collected and said that this evidence confirmed that there were no gunmen or armed confrontations near Abu Akleh during the moments before her killing. The same investigation also confirmed that Shireen was targeted by the Israeli forces, and concluded that analyzing the traces of bullets in the tree in which she took shelter indicates that she was deliberately targeted. The investigation of the American network showed that the shooter was between 177 and 197 meters away from the place where Shireen Abu Akleh fell.
The New York Times
The New York Times editorial department criticized the passage of three weeks since Abu Akleh's death without the initiation of external and official investigations, stressing that the world knows little about who was responsible for the killing of Abu Akleh. Then, it demanded again the necessity of conducting an independent investigation with American, Israeli, and Palestinian participation to establish the facts of the killing of Shireen. Stressing that it is best for the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the United States to agree on an independent investigator to determine who killed Shireen.
On 20 June 2022, The New York Times published the results of a lengthy investigation into the circumstances of Abu Akleh's killing. The investigation concluded that the bullet that killed Shireen was fired from the location where the Israeli military convoy was located, and also confirmed that the bullet was most likely fired by a soldier from the elite forces. In its investigation, The New York Times also confirmed that the evidence it collected confirms that there were no Palestinian gunmen near the place where Abu Akleh was killed and that the same collected evidence proves that the Israeli army fired 16 bullets from the position of its forces at the site where Shireen and some journalists were present, which contradicts the Israeli narrative.
Government investigations
United Nations
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also published the results of its investigation, which showed that Abu Akleh was killed by a bullet fired from the direction of the Israeli forces. The United Nations office urged Israel to conduct a criminal investigation into her death, although Israel had previously flatly refused to do so. The Israeli army responded to the UN commission's report as biased. It renewed their demand for the Palestinians to hand over the bullet that killed Abu Akleh and confirmed that their preliminary investigation determined that the shooting of the Palestinian journalist was not intentional, but it does not confirm that she was killed by an Israeli soldier. Amnesty International responded by calling for an independent and impartial international investigation into the killing of Abu Akleh as a war crime.
Refusal of criminal investigation
On 19 May, Haaretz announced, quoting official sources in the Israeli army, that the latter refused to open a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. The same source also confirmed that "there are no criminal suspicions in Shireen's death, and we do not want the investigation to lead to disputes within the army and society." The Israeli army confirmed, in an official response, what was reported by the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz, where it published a statement stating that "there is no way at the present time to open a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh."