The United States confirmed that the examination of the bullet that killed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was conducted by two experts from the U.S. investigation team, following a controversy regarding who examined the bullet. Washington announced on Monday that its investigators concluded that the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist working for Qatar's Al Jazeera, was "most likely" fired from an Israeli position but emphasized that there was no reason to believe that the shooter intended to kill Abu Akleh.
Ironically, while the U.S. announced the results of its investigation, Israel revealed that its own experts examined the bullet, which the Palestinian Authority had firmly refused to hand over to the Israeli side before reluctantly agreeing to transfer it to the American side.
It is noted that the Palestinian Authority and Al Jazeera accused Israel of killing Abu Akleh on May 11 while she was covering an Israeli military operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Following the release of the U.S. investigation results, Palestinians condemned "attempts to obscure the truth" in this case, while the Israeli announcement raised confusion regarding the entity that examined the bullet.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price attempted to clarify the confusion on Tuesday, confirming that the bullet examination was carried out by two seasoned experts from the U.S. Security Coordinator’s office, which is officially tasked with coordinating security cooperation between the United States and the Palestinians.
Although the American spokesperson confirmed that the investigation team included non-American experts, he stressed that the bullet was not examined by any Israeli or Palestinian experts. Price stated in this regard that "local experts, whether Israeli or Palestinian, did not conduct the examination that was undertaken by the U.S. Security Coordinator's office," without specifying the identity or nationality of these two experts. He noted that "the U.S. Security Coordinator's office had full custody of the bullet from the moment the Palestinian Authority handed it over until it returned it to the Palestinian Authority."
