President Joe Biden’s administration is pressuring the Palestinian Authority to respond to the shooting that killed Palestinian-American journalist Shirin Abu Kallah, three US and Israeli officials told the US website Axios on Friday, July 1, 2022. give to the United States Trying to determine its source
The website noted that these ongoing efforts by the White House and the State Department, which are under political pressure from members of Congress, “appear to be motivated by their desire to achieve tangible progress in the investigation before President Biden’s trip to Israel and . .. occupied the West Bank on July 13.
Israelis and Palestinians had conducted separate investigations into the killing of the late journalist on May 11, 2022, and the Israeli military investigation concluded that “Abu Aqilah may have been shot by an Israeli soldier, but it was not possible to determine who fired.” . The fatal bullet without conducting a forensic ballistics examination of the bullet and comparing it to the rifles that soldiers used in the area.
As for the Palestinian investigation, it concluded that the occupation soldiers killed Abu Aqila, and the Western media investigation showed that it was Israel who killed Abu Aqila.
Claiming that they do not trust Israel, the Palestinian authorities refuse to give the bullet shrapnel that was removed from the body of Abu Kahle for ballistics examination.
But US and Israeli officials who spoke to the US website said the Biden administration had been pressuring the Palestinians for five weeks to hand over the bullet to the US so it could conduct the forensic and ballistics examination.
The officials noted that the Biden administration proposed to Palestinian and Israeli officials that the US security coordinator, General Michael, lead the investigation and be in charge of the ballistics review.
The website also quoted two informed sources as saying that the Palestinians have rejected all US requests for bullets for weeks, which has caused great disappointment in the Biden administration.
The Palestinians recently indicated they may change their minds and shoot the US to end the investigation, the two sources added.
For his part, a US State Department official told AXIOS that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had a telephone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, June 30, 2022, and stressed the importance of a thorough, transparent and impartial investigation. .
The spokesperson of the US State Department also announced that “the US government is in close contact with the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to ask both authorities to fully cooperate in investigating the circumstances of Mrs. Abu Aqilah’s death and exchanging forensic documents.”
It is worth mentioning that this journalist was martyred while covering the events of the attack of the Zionist occupation army on the Jenin camp in the West Bank before being shot in the head, and his assassination provoked widespread anger and international criticism of the occupation.
Source: Lebanon Debate
