PA Refuses Joint Probe With Israel Into Killing of Journalist; Abbas Threatens To Turn to ICC

The Palestinian Authority has refused Israel’s request to conduct a joint investigation into the death of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed Wednesday while covering an Israel Defense Forces raid in the West Bank. In addition, the PA said it will not allow Israel access to the bullet that killed Abu Akleh, which would help point to who took the deadly shot the deadly bullet.

At the journalist’s funeral on Thursday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said he would go to the International Criminal Court, saying that “Israel bears full responsibility for this crime and it cannot go unpunished.”  He reiterated that the PA would not participate in a joint investigation with Israel or allow Israeli officials to inspect the bullet that killed Abu Akleh.

Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs head Hussein al-Sheikh tweeted that “Israel has requested a joint investigation and to be handed over the bullet that assassinated the journalist Shireen, we refused that, and we affirmed that our investigation would be completed independently.” The tweet continued, saying: “we will inform her family, USA, Qatar and all official authorities and the public of the results of the investigation with high transparency. All of the indicators, the evidence and the witnesses confirm her assassination by Israeli special units.”

In the hours after Abu Akleh was killed, Israeli officials suggested that she may have been killed by Palestinian bullets not by Israeli troops. On Wednesday night, Defense Minister Benny Gantz in a briefing to the foreign press walked this back. “First and foremost that I am very sorry for what happened. Secondly, currently we do not know what was the direct cause for Shireen’s death, and thirdly that I am, we are, very decisive to have a full-scale investigation of this process and we hope to get Palestinian cooperation on this issue, because without with the report of the pathological surgery that she went through and the findings and the forensic findings, it will be very hard for us to figure out what exactly happened on the ground and it’s very important for us all,” Gantz said.

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters during a regular briefing on Wednesday that “The Israelis have the wherewithal and the capabilities to conduct a thorough, comprehensive investigation,” after being asked if the US trusts Israel to investigate itself.