Al Jazeera submitted on Tuesday what it said was detailed evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague proving that the Israeli occupation forces deliberately shot dead its reporter Shireen Abu Akleh during clashes in the West Bank in May.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, the Doha-based television said it “will today submit the case of Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing by Israeli Occupation Forces to the International Criminal Court,” adding that its reporters and legal team will hold a press conference in the Dutch city alongside “members of Shireen’s family and leading journalists and human rights experts.”
The request includes a dossier on a comprehensive six-month investigation by Al Jazeera that gathers all available eyewitness evidence and video footage, as well as new material on the killing of Abu Akleh.
The request submitted to the ICC is presented “in the context of a wider attack on Al Jazeera, and journalists in Palestine”, said Rodney Dixon KC, a lawyer for Al Jazeera, referring to incidents such as the bombing of the network’s Gaza office on May 15, 2021.
Lapid: ‘No Israeli Soldier Will Be Interrogated’
Shortly after news emerged on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that no one would question Israeli soldiers.
“No one will interrogate IDF soldiers and no one will preach to us about morals of combat, certainly not the Al Jazeera network,” Lapid said.
Abu Akleh’s family filed an official complaint to the ICC in September. The court’s Office of the Prosecutor will presumably determine whether to launch an investigation into the case.
After the complaint in September, the Israeli occupation army told The Times of Israel that it rejects the claim that Abu Akleh was shot intentionally and claimed the establishment of a new investigation would be “biased and misleading.”
Israeli ‘Investigation’
The 51-year-old journalist, who was wearing a vest marked “Press” and a helmet, was martyred during clashes between Israeli occupation troops and Palestinian resistance fighters while covering a military operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on May 11.
While the Israeli army conducted its own investigation and acknowledged the bullet which killed Abu Aleh was “in very high likelihood” shot from an Israeli gun, it has impudently denied that the veteran journalist was deliberately targeted.
Al Jazeera’s new information was published Thursday in a documentary, including video evidence showing that at least one Israeli occupation soldier intentionally targeted a group of reporters that included the Palestinian-American Abu Akleh, and that she was not a victim of errant fire during a gun battle between occupation troops and Palestinian fighters, as the occupation military has claimed.
Source: Israeli media and Al Jazeera
