IDF probe said focused on exchange of fire 150m from where Palestinian journalist was fatally hit

The military’s ongoing investigation is focused on one particular incident among the stream of exchanges of fire between IDF troops and Palestinian gunmen during which Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed, according to Channel 12 news.

This particular incident “took place about 150 meters from where the journalist who was hit by gunfire and killed was positioned. The incident took place at the time [that she was hit].”

“There were Palestinian gunmen and they fired at IDF forces, who returned fire. And therefore, in the IDF, they are saying that if there is a possibility that the journalist was hit by IDF fire, this was the moment,” the network’s Nir Dvori says.

He adds though that it’s “still impossible to know for certain whether the journalist was hit by Palestinian or IDF gunfire despite the proximity and the closeness between the exchange of fire in this incident and the place where she stood.”

Channel 12, which does not cite a source, also says Israel has asked the Palestinian Authority for the helmet she was wearing so they could analyze it, but was rebuffed.

It also says all the IDF soldiers who were in the area have been asked to hand in their weapons for ballistic analysis. “Thus far, there is no finding that can definitively place a bottom line on this complex incident,” it reports.