Nabil Abu Rudeineh, official spokesman for Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said on Monday that the Israeli report regarding the death of Palestinian Arab journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh is "a new Israeli attempt to evade responsibility for causing her death."
Abu Rudeineh claimed that all the evidence found and the investigations conducted have proven that Israel the "criminal" is the one who killed the journalist and therefore must bear responsibility for the "crime it committed".
Abbas’ spokesman added that the Palestinian leadership will continue to follow the case of the death of Shireen Abu Aqleh and will turn to to all the relevant international bodies, led by the International Criminal Court.
"We cannot allow Israel to escape punishment for its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people and the holy places of Islam and Christianity," said Abu Rudeineh.
Earlier on Monday, the Commanding Officer of the Central Command, Yehuda Fuchs, presented the Chief of the General Staff, Aviv Kochavi, with the final conclusions of the investigation into the death of Abu Aqleh.
The investigation stated that a ballistic examination determined that in light of the poor physical state of the bullet, identifying the source from which it was fired is difficult. Therefore, it was also not possible to determine from this investigation whether or not the bullet was fired from an IDF rifle.
“According to the investigations and their findings, it appears that it is not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire which hit and killed Ms. Abu Aqleh. However, there is a high possibility that Ms. Abu Aqleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire in which life-threatening, widespread and indiscriminate shots were fired toward IDF soldiers. It is also important to emphasize and clarify that throughout the entire incident, IDF gunfire was fired with the intent of neutralizing the terrorists who shot at IDF soldiers. An additional possibility is that Ms. Abu Aqleh was hit by bullets fired by armed Palestinian gunmen toward the direction of the area in which she was present in,” the report said.
Abu Aqleh, an American-Palestinian Arab, was shot dead on May 11 while covering clashes between IDF soldiers and terrorists in Jenin for Al Jazeera.
The PA initially refused Israel’s request to launch a joint probe to investigate the incident, and instead released the findings of its investigation, claiming that she was shot by IDF forces.
Eventually, the PA finally agreed to a forensic investigation by the US of the bullet that they claim killed Abu Aqleh.