Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces, UN says

Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli forces, the United Nations has confirmed.

All the information that they have gathered so far, UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday, “is consistent with the finding that the shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians”.

She added that the UN’s investigation revealed no “activity by armed Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the journalists”, contradicting claims by the Israelis and their supporters that Shireen was killed by a bullet fired by Palentinians. “Several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards them from the direction of the Israeli Security Forces,” Shamdasani said, referring to the journalists who were present that day.

Investigations by the New York Times and CNN have also found evidence that Shireen was killed by Israeli armed forces who were “shooting directly at journalists”.

Shireen, who worked for Al Jazeera, was shot in the head while she was covering raids by Israeli forces in the West Bank’s Jenin on May 11. Her producer, Ali Samoudi, was shot as well but he survived.

The Palestinian health ministry later confirmed that Shireen had died from a bullet wound. She was wearing a bulletproof vest with “Press” written on it when she was killed.

Forensic investigations done by the Palestinian Authority and Al Jazeera indicated that the bullet extracted from Shireen matched the kind used by Israeli forces.