The Israeli military has filed a formal request to the international criminal court for the killing of veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, according to the Al Jazeera television network.
Abu Akleh was shot in the head during an Israeli raid in a refugee camp in the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in May, wearing a helmet and flak jacket that clearly indicated she was a member of the press. Several investigations by human rights organisations, as well as international news outlets and the UN have concluded that Abu Akleh, 51, was shot by an Israeli soldier. Her colleague Ali al-Samoudi survived after being shot in the shoulder.
Some of the investigations claim that the reporter was deliberately targeted by the Israel Defence Forces IDF and that no Palestinian militants representing targets were present at the scene. Israel now states that there is a high possibility that Abu Akleh was killed by an IDF soldier during an exchange of fire, but it also states that the shooting was accidental and does not warrant a criminal investigation.
Tuesday s submission of new video evidence to The Hague, some of which was later aired in a new Al Jazeera documentary, provides a detailed account of events during the morning when Abu Akleh died.
The formal filing shows that Shireen and her colleagues were directly fired at by the IDF Al Jazeera, but it also confirms that there was no firing in the area where Shireen was, other than the IDF shooting directly at her. Qatari-owned network claims that Abu Akleh s deliberate killing is part of a wider campaign to attack and silence Al Jazeera, as well as the bombing of the news outlet's offices in Gaza City last year s war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist
Al Jazeera's request builds on September s formal complaint to the ICC submitted by Abu Akleh s family. In April, a coalition made up of the International Federation of Journalists, the Palestinian Press Syndicate and leading human rights lawyers submitted an initial appeal to the ICC over the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists. A few days later, Abu Akleh was killed, and Al Jazeera filed a case asking the court to address her death in late May.
In 2021, the ICC decided that it had a mandate to investigate violence and war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, although Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognise its authority. Tuesday's submission from Al Jazeera requests that Abu Akleh's killing be included in the wider investigation.
While the Biden administration has largely embraced Israel's version of events, and resisted an independent US investigation into the killing of an American citizen, pressure from members of Congress forced it to agree to an FBI investigation.
Israel will not cooperate with the FBI. No one will investigate IDF soldiers and no one will preach to us about morals in warfare, certainly not Al Jazeera, said the outgoing prime minister, Yair Lapid, in a statement in response to Tuesday's ICC appeal.