A. The murder

On 11 May 2022, Al Jazeera American-Palestinian reporter Shireen Abu Akleh and a group of five other journalists arrived at Balat Al Shuhada’ street in Jenin to report on a raid on the nearby refugee camp by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The journalists wore prominent ‘PRESS’ vests that identified them as such, from both the front and back, and followed standard protocols for self-identification as they slowly approached a convoy of five armoured Israeli military vehicles parked along an unnamed street intersecting Balat Al Shuhada’. The Israeli army vehicles were approximately 200 metres south of the journalists.

The journalists present during this incident were:

1° Shireen Abu Akleh (fatally hit in her head)

2° Shatha Hanaysha (first eye witness under the fire standing near Shireen when Shireen was shot and killed)

3° Ali Al-Samoudi (injured in the shoulder)

4° Mujahid al-Saadi

5° Muhannad Nairoukh

6° Majdi Bannoura

At 6:31 AM, an Israeli army special forces marksman (different from ‘snipers’, they are part of a standard fighting squad: their task is to target shots more accurately than regular troops using guns having a bio-pod and an optical scope such as Trijicon ACOG x4) fired the first burst of six bullets directly at the group of journalists from a sniper hole in the military vehicle at the front of the Israeli army convoy.

One of the shots hit journalist Ali Al-Samoudi in the shoulder.

Eight seconds later, as the journalists attempted to take cover, the Israeli army marksman fired a second burst consisting of a further seven distinct gunshots, once again targeting the journalists. One of those bullets hit Shireen Abu Akleh in the head, fatally wounding her.

Two minutes later, an unarmed civilian, Sharif al-Azab, attempted to deliver first aid to Shireen, and he, too, was fired at with three distinct gunshots.

See the Timeline of the incident reconstructed by Forensic Architecture

She was transported to Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, where she was pronounced dead, at the age of 51. The injured journalist, Ali Samoadi, of the Al-Quds newspaper, was shot in the back but survived.

B. The aftermath of the murder

On May 11, 2022 :

The Israeli military and Israel's US embassy tweeted a video of Palestinian gunmen in Jenin firing down an alley, suggesting they were responsible. However Israeli NGO B'Tselem visited the scene where that footage was taken, and said it was impossible for Abu Akleh to have been hit from there.

On May 13, 2022 :

Abu Akleh’s body was brought from Jenin, where she was killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday, to Jerusalem via Nablus and Ramallah, in a procession where Palestinians paid their respects.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he would take Abu Akleh’s case to the International Criminal Court in an effort to get justice for the veteran reporter, who joined Al Jazeera in 1997, and was an icon in Palestine and the wider Arab world.

In a scene that violates all norms and International laws, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the French Hospital in Jerusalem and attacked the mourners of the late Shireen Abu Akleh at the start of the funeral procession. They severely beat the pallbearers of the late journalist.

Israeli forces beat crowd of mourners carrying coffin of Shireen Abu Akleh ahead of funeral in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem.

Thousands of Palestinians have gathered for the funeral service, before Abu Akleh is taken to the Mount Zion Protestant Cemetery, where she will be buried alongside her late parents.

Sources 1

C. Independant Forensic Architecture Investigation

General conclusion of the investigation :

1. The journalists were clearly identifiable as press/non-combatants to the Israeli army marksman.
2. The Israeli army marksman deliberately and repeatedly targeted Shireen and her fellow journalists with the intention to kill.
3. The attack on Shireen and her journalist colleagues occurred during a period without risk to the Israeli army marksman’s life or that of other soldiers. There were no shots other than those of the Israeli marksman fired at the time and no armed individuals in the vicinity of the journalists.
4. Shireen was deliberately denied first aid after being shot by the Israeli army.

Conclusions of Audio and acoustic analysis | Gunfire

before,during and after the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh by Researcher in charge: Dr. Lawrence Abu Hamdan:

The shooter fired a semi-automatic weapon from approximately 180 metres away from Shireen Abu Akleh. This shooter pulled the trigger on seven separate occasions within two seconds making the claim that at no point was there any intentional gunfire carried out by IDF soldiers in a manner intended to harm the journalist” highly improbable. All gunshots audible in the 2 minutes prior to the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh are fired from the same position. No other shots in this recording are firing towards the military position from the the vicinity of Shireen Abu Akleh and her colleagues. This report finds no evidence to support the claims that life-threatening, widespread and indiscriminate shots were fired toward IDF soldiers.” The journalist was not “present in the area during an exchange of fire. .

The online report with videos

the PFD Complete report

D. International statements

On October 13, 2022 UN human rights experts have condemned the killing of Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, and called for a prompt, transparent, thorough and independent investigation into her death. “The killing of Abu Akleh is another serious attack on media freedom and freedom of expression, amid the escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank.(...) We demand a prompt, independent, impartial, effective, thorough and transparent investigation into the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, in full compliance with the Revised United Nations Manual on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions (The Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death). We urge the Israeli and Palestinian authorities and other stakeholders to cooperate with such an investigation."

Powerful statement by Shireen Abu Akleh’s family saying they are “incredulous” after the State Department released its finding, calling it “insulting to Shireen’s memory.”

E. Further linked incidents againt press freedom and Shireen Memory

Her funeral was assaulted by Israely Security Policethroughout the procession in Jerusalem, with the coffin bearers being violently beaten with batons and prevented from moving forward. The coffin nearly fell to the ground multiple times. All of these scenes were filmed and broadcast around the world. The White House denounced the violence as “deeply disturbing.”

Her memorial, located at the site where she was killed, was desecrated by Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in October 2023. A D9 Caterpillar bulldozer was used to clear the road and destroy the street mural commemorating her.

During the Israeli raid on the Al Jazeera office to shut it down in September 2024, the poster in memory of Shireen that adorned the façade was immediately removed and torn apart in full view of the cameras.

Her colleagues, and particulary Shatha Hanaysha, were subjected to threats and attempts on their lives while covering stories.

On September 19, Israeli forces violently arrested prominent Palestinian journalist Mujahed al-Saadi, breaking into his home in the middle of the night in Jenin, an illegally occupied part of the West Bank. Al-Saadi had been present when the IDF shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 and had recently reported for Drop Site during Israel’s brutal 10-day siege of Jenin.