LONDON — Deep divisions have surfaced within the U.S. government over the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as new revelations suggest Washington’s 2022 assessment of her death was intentionally softened to spare Israel diplomatic fallout, The New York Times reported Monday.
Abu Akleh, a revered Al Jazeera correspondent, was fatally shot while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. She was wearing a blue press vest and helmet when she was struck by a single bullet that pierced just below her ear.
Initial Israeli claims blamed Palestinian gunmen, but following mounting international pressure, the Israeli military later conceded that she was likely shot by an Israeli soldier who had “misidentified” her.
Now, a retired U.S. military policeman who participated in the review, Col. Steve Gabavics, has broken his silence. He told The Times he believed the evidence clearly indicated the Israeli sniper knew he was targeting a journalist, if not Abu Akleh herself, then one of the visibly marked reporters near her.
Based on radio transmissions, the precision of the shots, and the journalists’ open visibility, Gabavics said the incident bore all the signs of intent. But when he pressed his superior, Lt. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel, to label it deliberate, he was overruled.
“The favoritism is always toward the Israelis,” Gabavics said, adding that the decision to avoid calling the killing intentional “continued to be on my conscience nonstop.”
The official U.S. report ultimately concluded that gunfire from Israeli Defense Forces positions was “likely responsible” for Abu Akleh’s death but deemed it the result of “tragic circumstances” rather than deliberate action.
Multiple independent investigations, including those by the United Nations, The New York Times, and other news outlets have contradicted that finding, pointing instead to compelling evidence of a targeted shooting.
Abu Akleh’s killing, and Washington’s cautious handling of it, continues to haunt U.S. officials and cast a long shadow over America’s posture toward Israel. As Gabavics put it: “Of all the cases I worked, this one bothered me the most because we had everything there.”
