US to examine bullet that killed Al Jazeera journalist in Jerusalem

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestinian Attorney-General Akram al-Khatib said Sunday that a US team will examine the bullet that killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

“A US team has already arrived to conduct the forensic examination of the bullet at the US Embassy in Jerusalem,” al-Khatib told the official Palestine Voice radio.

He said the bullet will be returned to the Palestinians after the examination, adding that there will be no Israeli participation in the analysis.

“The bullet will never be given to the Israeli side for examination,” he added.

An Israeli military spokesman earlier told the Army Radio on Sunday that Israeli experts will examine the bullet with the Americans.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority said it had handed the bullet that killed Abu Akleh to US officials to conduct a forensic examination.

On May 11, Abu Akleh, 51, was covering an Israeli military raid near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when she was shot dead.

While Palestinian officials and her employer Al Jazeera accused Israel of killing the reporter, Tel Aviv denied any responsibility.

Palestinian officials have rejected an Israeli request for conducting a joint investigation into the journalist’s death.

On May 26, al-Khatib announced that an examination of Abu Akleh’s body confirmed that she was killed by an armor-piercing projectile fired directly at her head by an Israeli sniper.

Several leading media agencies, including Al Jazeera, CNN, Associated Press, Washington Post, and the New York Times, conducted their own investigations, which all came to an end that Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli bullet.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara