November 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The family of Palestinian-American journalist Shirin abu Akle, who was shot dead in May during an Israeli forces operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, has applauded the US decision to investigate the incident.
“It is an important step towards accountability that brings the family closer to achieving justice for Shirin,” the family said in their statement, published by Lina abu Aklé, the journalist’s niece, through her account on the social network Twitter.
Thus, the journalist’s family has been “hopeful” about the opening of the investigation and recalled that they have been asking Washington for this step “from the beginning.” “This is what the United States should do when an American citizen is killed abroad, especially when he is killed by a foreign military, as is the case with Shirin,” she said.
In this sense, the journalist’s family has shown their hope that the United States “uses all the investigative tools at its disposal to obtain answers about Shirin’s death and hold those responsible for this atrocity to account.”
“We ask all parties that have evidence to respond to requests for investigation by the United States Department of State and not stand in the way of justice,” he said, before showing the willingness of the family of Abu Aklé to “support the investigation”.
“We hope that this investigation by the United States is truly independent, credible and thorough, that it follows the evidence to the end, both up and down the chain of command,” he concluded.
The letter was published just a few hours after Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Gantz revealed that the investigation was a “mistake” and stressed that the Israeli authorities refuse to cooperate with the investigations.
Gantz has stressed that the Israeli Army has already carried out an “independent professional investigation” that led the Israeli government to admit that it was possible that Abu Aklé died from a shot fired by an Israeli soldier.
The journalist was shot dead on May 11 during an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank, while working for the Qatari television channel Al Jazeera. The reporter herself was wearing a helmet and a vest that identified her as a journalist.
For its part, the conclusions of the independent investigation carried out by the United Nations Office for Human Rights into the death of the journalist coincide with the evaluation carried out by the Palestinian authorities and which point to the Israeli forces as responsible for the death of the reporter.
The conclusions of the investigation carried out by the international organization also dismantle the narrative that there was activity by armed Palestinians in the vicinity of the position where the reporters were, as Israel pointed out at the time.
