Israeli military will not conduct criminal probe into Al Jazeera reporter’s death

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The Israeli military’s Military Police Criminal Investigation Division does not plan to investigate the fatal shooting of Shireen Abu Akleh. The Palestinian-American journalist for Al Jazeera was killed during clashes between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in Jenin on May 11th.

Abu Akleh’s death has been widely covered in international media outlets and brought fierce condemnation of the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli policy in the West Bank. Israeli officials, including the prime minister and the military chief of staff, expressed regret over her death. The Biden administration also criticized Israel and demanded explanations. The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of killing Abu Akleh. The IDF said its interim investigation could not determine whether she was killed by Israeli or Palestinian gunfire.

Abu Akleh was shot and killed on the outskirts of Burqin, a village adjacent to the Jenin refugee camp, while the IDF commando unit Duvdevan was conducting an arrest sweep in the camp. Palestinian gunmen fired heavily at the commandos and additional troops who entered the camp. The investigation into the shooting led by Col. Meni Liberty, the head of the Commando Brigade (to which Duvdevan is subordinate), found six instances of IDF gunfire at armed Palestinians who were near Abu Akleh and additional journalists. In one of them, a Duvdevan fighter returned fire, from inside an armored jeep, at a gunman. The Palestinian emerged from behind a wall, while the jeep was about 190 meters from the reporter. It is during this incident that the army fears Abu Akleh may have been shot.

However, the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to conduct an autopsy and to hand over the bullet that was removed from her body for a joint ballistic exam, makes final findings difficult. IDF officials believe that the army’s final investigation will not generate a decisive answer to the question of who killed Abu Akleh.

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At the end of the second intifada, then-Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit, instituted a protocol whereby in most cases in which Palestinian civilians were killed in the West Bank and there was a suspicion that it was caused by Israeli gunfire, a probe by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division – better known by its Hebrew acronym, Metzah – was opened. This is in contrast to cases in which armed activists were killed in an exchange of fire with IDF forces and in contrast to incidents during fighting in the Gaza Strip, which are rarely investigated by Metzah.

This time, however, the Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, refrained from ordering a Metzah probe. The main reason for this is that there is no suspicion of a criminal act: The soldiers testified that they did not see the journalist at all and aimed their fire at gunmen, who were indeed nearby. However, it seems that one of the reasons for the decision was the belief that such an investigation, which would necessitate questioning as potential criminal suspects soldiers for their actions during a military operation, would provoke opposition and controversy within the IDF and in Israeli society in general.

The Israeli right, in particular, has in recent years sharply criticized every case in which an investigation is opened against fighters. The decision not to open a criminal investigation, for which no official announcement has been made, is likely to provoke criticism from Washington, which has demanded that Israel investigate Abu Akleh’s death fully.