UNITED States Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price at the daily briefing with reporters in Washington, D.C. sheds light on myriad of issues affecting Americans. Sadiq Yishau reports that much of the briefing was used to address the killing of a journalist Abu Akleh. Excerpts:
The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh
Our goal in this was not to please everyone. Our goal in this was not to please anyone. Our goal in this was to put forward what the U.S. security coordinator had found in his summary of the investigations to date.
And just to take a step back, there were two elements in the statement that we put out yesterday. The first dealt with the forensic analysis of the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, and as you saw from the statement, the bullet was damaged to the extent that the independent third-party examiners weren’t able to come to a conclusive judgment regarding the origin of the bullet.
Now, the second element of that statement is broader. The second element of that statement deals with the summary of the investigations – that is to say, the summary of the Israeli, the IDF, and the Palestinian Authority, the PA, investigations that have been undertaken to date that the U.S. security coordinator put together in his role. The security coordinator over the course of several weeks had been granted access to both of those investigations, and in summarizing them, the security coordinator concluded that gunfire from an IDF position was likely responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh. The security coordinator also found no reason to believe that it was an intentional killing but rather the result of tragic circumstances during the course of an IDF-led raid in Jenin against factions of PIJ, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, on May 11th that had followed a series of attacks in recent weeks.
So in terms of the USSC, the U.S. security coordinator, came to that conclusion, as I said before, the security coordinator was granted access to the investigations of the two parties. The security coordinator also visited the site of Ms. Abu Akleh’s death in order to garner additional information. So putting all of these pieces together, it led to the determination that gunfire from an IDF position likely resulted in her death. It also – in the course of the investigation, given the totality of circumstances, given the totality of facts that became available and that were made available to the U.S. security coordinator and his team, they found no reason to believe that it was an intentional killing, but rather the result of tragic circumstances in the course of a raid.
The independent third-party examiner that looked at the bullet
These were members of the USSC team. Together, they have 42 years of combined forensic experience. As we said, the bullet was damaged to such an extent that it precluded a conclusive determination as to the type of gun from which the bullet was fired. But these are some of the most experienced ballistic experts in the business.
Well, I don’t want to bring in specific countries, but the USSC – it’s a multinational organization. It includes several of our close NATO Allies. And so we brought in, as part of that team, two officials from that multinational team with extensive – as I said before, 42 years of – combined forensic experience.
The totality of the circumstances based on the two investigations to which they were granted access, based on the site visit to the site of Ms. Abu Akleh’s death, led them to the conclusion that this was the result of tragic circumstances during this IDF-led operation.
Is this investigation over?
Well, you heard from us similarly in the statement yesterday that we will remain engaged with Israel and the PA on next steps and to urge accountability. We do want to see accountability. We would expect accountability in any case involving a wrongful death, and this clearly was the case of a wrongful death. Our goal – and what we believe is the collective goal of the parties – is to see to it that something akin to this, the killing of a journalist in a conflict zone, can’t happen again, must not happen again.
How long was the USSC involved in this process?
The USSC was granted access to the investigation over the course of several weeks.
As I said before, this was not a criminal investigation. This was an effort on the part of the USSC to summarize the findings that the PA have – has devised and the findings that the IDS – the IDF has come to in their own respective investigations. Yes, there was a site visit to the site of Ms. Abu Akleh’s killing, but this was primarily a summation of the investigation on the part of the two parties. I didn’t intend to suggest that the entirety of the USSC team is comprised of forensics experts. The forensics experts with the 42 years of experience, those were the individuals that conducted the testing of the bullet in question.
The USSC team, of course, is much broader. It has a much more expansive set of backgrounds and expertise. This is a team that is fully capable of working with both the PA and the IDF, as they routinely do in the course of their business, to take a look at their investigations, to take a very close and careful look with an exacting eye at the conclusions that both parties have arrived at to date, to supplement that with a visit to the site where Ms. Abu Akleh was so tragically killed, and then to form conclusions based on that.
Now, these are analytic conclusions. Again, that is why we have caveats in there. Likely fired from an IDF position; no evidence to suggest this was intentional. So we need to be clear about what this was and what this wasn’t. But the USSC is confident in its findings, and we have confidence in turn in the USSC.
Assuaging the family
We continue to urge both the Israeli investigators and the Palestinian investigators to bridge their investigations. You may recall prior to this past weekend we had been calling publicly for the IDF and the PA to bridge their respective investigations, because it was our belief that by doing so would provide both sides with the clearest indication and the clearest route to accountability.
We will continue to work both with Israeli investigators, with the PA as well, to continue to encourage them to bridge this investigation because, yes, as we said in our statement, we do want to see accountability. We would want to see accountability in any case of a wrongful death. That would especially – and is especially the case in the wrongful death of an American citizen, as was Shireen Abu Akleh. So we will continue working with the two parties to see to it that they continue, to the best of their willingness and ability, to bridge their investigative efforts and, in the aftermath of that, to consider steps that would render a degree of accountability. And we believe it is in the interests of all of the parties – Israelis as well as Palestinians – to put in place steps that further safeguard civilian and non-combatant life.
Senior American officials have been in close touch with the Abu Akleh family…We have been in close touch, including in very recent days.
We believe both parties operated in good faith. And just to be clear about this, the examination was conducted by two members of the USSC. These were the two forensics experts with a combined 42 years of experience. Local experts, whether they were Israeli or Palestinian, did not conduct USSC’s examination of the bullet. The USSC had full custody of the bullet from the moment it was provided by the PA to the USSC until the moment it was returned by the USSC to the PA.
Accountability
We are always going to encourage steps to safeguard civilians and non-combatants in a combat zone. This is a message we have discussed with our Israeli partners prior to this, and we believe that based on the findings of the USSC that there does need to be accountability. We have consistently called for accountability in the case of Ms. Abu Akleh’s killing. Again, we’re not going to be prescriptive in terms of what that looks like. We’ve said what this appears to be and what it appears not to be. But regardless, we believe there needs to be accountability to see to it that something like this does not happen again.
