Shireen Abu Akleh: Video shows no gun battle before Israel killed journalist

A newly surfaced video dispels Israeli claims veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in an area where Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters were exchanging fire.

The footage, obtained by The New Arab, shows what the man videoing said were Israeli snipers positioned in a side street – right before Israeli forces shot the 51-year-old Al Jazeera reporter dead.

The incident took place as Abu Akleh covered an Israeli raid at Jenin refugee camp in the illegally occupied West Bank on 11 May.

"There's the [Israeli] army. There's a sniper – he clocked me," the shocked man videoing the scene said.

Another clip shows him saying: "The occupation forces are storming Jenin [refugee] camp," indicating Palestinians had always believed they were faced with Israeli soldiers.

The area where the video is being recorded from appeared to be free of any armed Palestinians but shows Abu Akleh and other journalists dressed in vests clearly identifying them as press.

No shots could be seen or heard before the snipers opened fired and there did not appear to be anything obscuring the marksmen's view.

A group of media workers had only made it a few metres down the street by the time the Israeli forces fired on them.

Others standing in an adjoining road scurried away as gunfire rang out.

As shots continued to be heard, the man recording the scene said: "Someone is hit. Shireen, Shireen," before repeatedly calling for an ambulance.

"They're civilians. They're journalists," another Palestinian man added.

The Israeli military has identified a soldier's rifle that may have killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.https://t.co/1M6GfjJQOH

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) May 20, 2022

A rescuer was eventually able to retrieve Abu Akleh amid pleas for someone to bring her to safety.

He was helped by other men to rush her to a waiting car.

It comes as the Israeli army on Thursday said it would not currently be opening a criminal probe of the journalist's killing, The Guardian reported.

The military said this was since she died in what it called an "active combat situation", however, an "operational inquiry" will examine what happened.

Featured image credit: Getty Images