The sound of the bullets in the recordings has made it possible to determine the distance at which the shots were fired, between 150 and 180 meters. There was an armored car there.
According to an investigation by The New York Times , “most likely” is that Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli soldiers despite the official Israeli position blaming Palestinian militiamen.
After determining that 16 shots were fired at the time of the journalist’s death, the microsecond analysis of the sound of the bullets in the recordings has made it possible to determine the distance at which the shots were fired: between 150 and 180 meters.
Precisely at that distance and with a direct view of where the journalist was, there was an Israeli military armored vehicle, while the Palestinian militiamen were closer and with a wall between them and the journalists.
However, the investigation indicates that there are no indications that the military had the intention of ending the life of the Al Jazeera journalist .
“We have found no evidence that the shooter recognized Abu Akleh or shot her personally. The Times has not been able to determine whether the shooter had seen that both she and her companions were wearing protective vests with the word press overprinted,” the newspaper noted.
Abu Akleh died on May 11 after being shot in the head as part of an operation by Israeli security forces in the city of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli authorities already indicated last week that the Army had identified the weapon with which the journalist could have been shot, although they stressed that they cannot be sure unless the Palestinian authorities hand over the bullet, something they have refused to do. .
Now the investigation of the New York newspaper has reconstructed the moments before the shooting using several videos of Palestinian civilians who were at the scene, security cameras and the testimonies of seven witnesses.
The analysis of the audio tracks and the work of experts who have visited the scene of the incident, in addition to the account of the Israeli military authorities, have yielded these conclusions, which highlight that there were no armed Palestinians in the place where the journalist was.
In fact, it highlights that two minutes have passed since the last shooting and the burst of thirteen bullets that killed Abu Akleh. Israel maintains that if it was an Israeli shot, the soldier was trying to shoot a nearby Palestinian gunman.