UN: IOF fired shots that killed Abu Akleh

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Information gathered by the United Nations showed that the bullets that killed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh were fired from the barrel of an Israeli gun, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said on Friday.

"All information we have gathered 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," OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.

According to the data gathered by the human rights watchdog, there was no activity by any armed Palestinians in the journalists' immediate vicinity, Shamdasani added.

Abu Akleh and the group of Al Jazeera journalists made sure to stand in front of an IOF convoy while wearing press jackets and helmets to indicate their journalist status, the investigation showed, in confirmation of the testimony of one of the martyr's colleagues.

"The journalists said they chose a side street for their approach to avoid the location of armed Palestinians inside the camp and that they proceeded slowly in order to make their presence visible to the Israeli forces deployed down the street," she said, revealing that there was no warning before the Israeli occupation forces opened fire at that time and that location.

"Several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards [the journalists] from the direction of the Israeli security forces," Shamdasani said.

She also highlighted how the IOF continued firing at an unarmed man who was trying to help Abu Akleh, as well as a journalist who was using a tree as a shelter.

OHCHR chief Michelle Bachelet reiterated her call for the Israeli occupation to launch a criminal investigation into Abu Akleh's killing, Shamdasani noted amid accusations from top Israeli officials that Palestinians could have been behind Abu Akleh's murder.

Later on, "Tel Aviv" went back on its words, raising the possibility that an Israeli soldier could have fired the shot that took the veteran journalist's life.

Around half of the Democrat Senators in the US Congress were reported earlier today as calling for Washington to be directly involved in the investigation into last month's murder of Abu Akleh.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), even before reports regarding the letter emerged, started lobbying to block it using claims such as bias against the Israeli occupation. The lobbying group claimed that the circumstances of Abu Akleh's murder remained unclear while alleging that the senators' letter "implies both Israeli culpability and inability to conduct an objective, thorough investigation" of the murder.

Investigations conducted by CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post have all found that the Israeli occupation was behind Abu Akleh's murder in one way or another. One thing all the outlets have in common is that the bullet that ended the life of a veteran journalist was fired from the direction of an IOF convoy that was in Jenin as part of an Israeli bid to terrorize the city's residents amid confrontations.

The Washington Post examined more than 60 videos, social media posts, and photos of the murder, conducted physical inspections of the area, and commissioned two independent acoustic analyses of the gunshots. The paper found that Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier in the convoy that was near her and her colleagues.

Eyewitnesses told CNN that the Israeli forces present on the same street fired, deliberately, at the journalist even though the entourage followed journalist protocol, making sure they were seen, as a group, before moving around. 

In the wake of the various press investigations into the crime, "Israel" seems like it won't be conducting an investigation of its own into the murder - US lawmakers, the United Nations, and the international community on the other hand are demanding an independent investigation.