IDF says it cannot determine who shot Al Jazeera reporter without examining bullet — report

Israel is insisting it cannot determine who shot Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh to death in Jenin on Wednesday without examining the bullet removed from her neck, according to an Israeli television report.

Channel 12 news says Israel has asked the US for assistance in the case, as Abu Akleh had American citizenship. The Israel Defense forces said earlier today that the Palestinians had rejected offers to be present and take part in the inquiry alongside an American representative.

During a raid in Jenin today, troops headed to the scene where Abu Akleh was killed, to attempt to reconstruct the events.

Still, an interim report issued by the IDF says there are two likely scenarios, which in neither case — Palestinian terrorists’ gunfire or Israeli sniper fire — was she killed deliberately.

In the case of Israeli sniper fire, the army said the probe involved a soldier who used a gun with a telescopic sight to fire back at a gunman through a slit in the armored vehicle he was riding in.

“The gunman fired bursts toward the IDF soldier several times and there is a possibility that the reporter was struck by the soldier’s fire toward [him],” a statement from the IDF said.

But according to Channel 12, the army says it cannot definitively say which gunfire killed Abu Akleh until it examines the bullet, which is being held by the Palestinian Authority.