“The test will be an Israeli test with an American presence,” said military spokesperson Ran Kochav. On Saturday, the Palestinian authority had, however, entrusted the ball to the Americans.
Le Monde with AFP
This is an unexpected turnaround. Israeli and non-American experts will examine the ball having killed the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, on May 11, in order to determine the circumstances of his death, said the Israeli army, Sunday, July 3.
“The test will not be American, the test will be an Israeli test with an American presence,” said military spokesperson Ran Kochav at the army radio microphone. “We are waiting for the results, if we have killed it, we will take responsibility for it,” he added, without specifying whether or not the expertise had started.
The Palestinian Authority did not officially comment on these Israeli statements. But a Palestinian official informed the France-Presse agency, under the guise of anonymity, that they raised questions as to whether we could “trust the Americans”.
Saturday, the Palestinian prosecutor Akram al-Khatib had, thus, said that the fatal ball to the journalist of the Al-Jazira channel, killed by covering an Israeli military operation in occupied West Bank, had been given to the United States in View of expertise by American experts. Palestinian sources in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian authority in the West Bank, had said on Saturday that the expertise would be carried out at the Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem by Americans.
Palestinian refusal
The Palestinian Authority has always refused to give the ball to the Israeli army accused of having killed the journalist by the Palestinian authorities, Al-Jazira, Qatar and the UN UN High Commissioner. Journalistic surveys have also pointed out towards the Israeli army.
Israel rejected all of these accusations. The Israeli army keeps saying that it is “impossible to determine whether [the journalist] was killed by an armed Palestinian man firing blindly in the sector where it was, or inadvertently by an Israeli soldier”.
She also called many times, but in vain, the Palestinian authority to give her the fatal ball, the only way according to the soldiers to really determine who fired. The Palestinians had asked the Israelis to give them the suspicious weapon.
The journalist wore a bulletproof jacket on which the word “press” was written and a protection helmet when it was affected by a ball just under the thumb of her helmet, near the refugee camp Jénine in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.