Who killed the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh-and why? | Dion Nissenbaum

You may think you know the story of the first Palestinian-American journalist who was killed by Israeli armed forces, but you probably don't.

During the majority of the world, Shireen Abu Akleh was the voice of Palestine, a brave, experienced Al Jazera journalist, who repeatedly put her life on the line to cover the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

On May 11, 2022, Shireen strapped her chest on her helmet and blue body armor with the word “press” and set off, which she expected for another tense day for an Israeli military attack in the western bank of Jenin. It turned out that it was the last: Shireen was shot into the back of an Israeli soldier.

Her death became a polarizing flash between Israel and the USA. After the Israeli military falsely blamed the militants of militant Israeli militants, he reluctantly admitted that one of her own soldiers with a lot of certainty shot the 51-year-old journalist.

Nobody was ever recorded to take Shireen's murder into account. Israel rejected an FBI examination of her death and rejected the Israeli military's demand to revise the rules of commitment to try to prevent more innocent people from being killed.

Israel refused to let the US interview have fired the soldier who fired the fatal shots. Israel refused to give the Americans the soldier's statement about what he thought when he shot shireen. Israel would not even tell the United States' name. Without this information, US officials said, they could not determine whether the Israeli military was to blame for human rights violations for murder of Shireen.

So I made myself and a team of journalists find out who killed Shireen – and why.

Our months of examination resulted in some disturbing revelations. First, it became clear that Israel immediately knew that one of his soldiers probably killed Shireen – although Israeli guide incorrectly accused Palestinian militant for their death.

Hours after Shireen had been killed, the current and former US government official told me that the supreme Israeli general, who was responsible for the West Bank, told the American official that one of his soldiers probably killed Shireen. Israeli and American civil servants knew the truth right from the start. But Israel spent months to condemn a number of independent studies by journalists who came to the conclusion that an Israeli soldier shot shrewen.

Our reporting also shows that an initial American assessment found that the Israeli soldier deliberately shot Shireen – and that he should be able to say that she was a journalist because she was wearing the blue body armor with the armor marked with “press”.

A bidet management, who was familiar with the examination, told us that the soldier who had killed Shireen could have been convicted of murder in an American courtroom. But the initial finding was rejected. Instead, the Biden administration made an 180th. The United States came to the conclusion that it found no reason to believe that its killing was intended and blamed it with the “tragic circumstances”.

It is difficult to find a message about Shireen's death that clearly shows what happened on this day. Let me lay out the facts: an Israeli soldier saw in a armored vehicle how Shireen shot the road 200 meters away and deliberately. The Israeli military's own investigation came to the conclusion that the soldier shireen incorrectly identified as a militant and killed it. The Israeli military's own investigation gave no evidence to support their initial claims that Shireen may have been killed in the crossfire. The Israeli military's investigation did not document Palestinian militant near Shireen when it was killed.

To be clear: Israel's own investigation came to the conclusion that it was almost certain that his soldier shirt deliberately killed. The only persistent question is: why? Since the US government did not find the shooter, we decided to track it down.

We spoke to experienced Israeli military soldiers and American investigators who told us that they had not opened a fire on Shireen. They told us that it was an example of bad training or a bad discipline.

An Israeli soldier who knew the shooter also defended his comrades by telling us that “they see someone who has a camera or something that shows them, they need no more than that to shoot the ball”.

This perspective has long been present in the Israeli military. In 2002, an Israeli sniper shot the Boston Globe journalist Anthony Shadid into the shoulder, while he was wearing blue body armor in the capital of the western bank, Ramallah. In 2008, an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip fired a tank of 700 meters away on the 24-year-old Reuters journalist Fadel Shana'a, who wore Blue Body armor and filmed on a tripod with a camera. Israel said the tank unit thought that the camera was a weapon and frees the soldiers of misconduct. In October 2023, an Israeli tank opened a group of journalists on a distant hill across the border in the South Libanon and killed the Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. Israel has never admitted a guilt.

Israel has long rejected allegations that it intentionally aims at journalists. But the attack on October 7, 2023 in South Israel seems to have changed the nation's calculation. Since then, the Israeli military has changed its melody. Israel has deliberately killed journalists in the Gaza and accused of working “combat propagandists” for news agencies associated with Palestinian militant groups. The international spokesman for the Israeli military has sent a clear message that wearing Blue Body armor with the word “press” does not offer protection for journalists.

“Wearing a vest where” press “does not turn a terrorist into a journalist,” tweeted LT Col Nadav Shoshani last year. So it is no surprise that Israel has now become the most dangerous country for journalists. Israel has killed more than 175 journalists since October 7, 2023, according to the committee to protect journalists. In 2024, more journalists were killed than in any other year since the committee began documenting such deaths more than three decades ago. Israel killed almost two thirds of the 124 journalists who died worldwide in 2024.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least six other Americans since Shireen's death. The country has not kept anyone to take into account the murders. Sen Chris van Hollen, who repeatedly asked the US government to examine these deaths and urge Israel to change her engagement rules, told me that Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly given the USA when it comes to this murders.

Israel continued his approach to Palestinian media. Ali Samoudi, Shireen's producer, was shot and injured by the same Israeli soldier who killed Shireen. A documentary film team met Samoudi in Jenin when he reported ongoing Israeli military operation.

“We were overcome by fear,” says Samoudi in the documentary. “From the moment that the shireen was killed, I said, I said, and will continue to say that this ball should prevent the Palestinian media before documenting and combating the crimes of the profession.”

At the end of April, Israeli armed forces Samoudi arrested and accused him without providing evidence in order to be “identified” with the militant group of Islamic jihad. His family said he was beaten by Israeli soldiers and tied up in a hospital bed with handcuffs. Samoudi remains in custody.

At the beginning of this year we did what the United States did not do, and Shireen's murderers found. It turned out that the Israeli soldier, who shot Shireen in Jenin, was killed in the same West Bank City last year. The soldier Alon Scagio had been tacitly transferred to another unit after determining the Israeli investigation of the death of Shireen. He was buried as a hero because he had saved other Israeli soldiers who were injured in a Palestinian militant attack. The Israeli soldier, who knew the shooter, told me that his comrades had been so outraged that Scagios had been clouded by his killing of Shireen that they used Shireen's image for target practice.

Our reporting made one thing clear: the bidges administration did not pass Shireen Abu Akleh. Our source of the bidden administration informed us that the USA allowed Israel to get away with murder. Scagio's death makes it more difficult to find out what he thought that day. The Israeli military could help give some answers by publishing Scagios' statement.

The congress was able to bring important witnesses to Washington to hear the results of the US investigation. The Israeli military could revise the way its soldiers train it so that they kill less innocent people. And Israel itself could change the course and make it clear that journalists do not see it as an enemy.

Until then it is likely that more journalists, more Americans and innocent civilians die from the Israeli military.

• Dion Nissenbaum was a long -standing foreign correspondent in Wall Street Journal in Jerusalem, Beirut, Kabul and Istanbul over the course of two decades. He is the executive producer of who killed Shireen? And a two-time Pulitzer Prize for international reporting