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Al Jazeera TV files suit with ICC against Israel over death of journalist

According to the Qatari TV station's appeal to the ICC prosecutor, the new eyewitness accounts and videos "clearly show that Shireen and her colleagues were directly fired at by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)"

CAIRO, December 6. /TASS/. Qatar's Al Jazeera TV channel has filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israel over the death of its journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, according to a statement released on Tuesday on the website of the channel's owner, Al Jazeera Media Network.

"Al Jazeera Media Network will today [on Tuesday] submit the case of Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing by Israeli Occupation Forces to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague," the text reads. According to the statement, Al Jazeera's legal team conducted "a full and detailed investigation into the case and unearthed new evidence based on several eyewitness accounts, the examination of multiple items of video footage, and forensic evidence pertaining to the case".

According to the Qatari TV station's appeal to the ICC prosecutor, the new eyewitness accounts and videos "clearly show that Shireen and her colleagues were directly fired at by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)." "The claim by the Israeli authorities that Shireen was killed by mistake in an exchange of fire is completely unfounded. The evidence presented to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) confirms, without any doubt, that there was no firing in the area where Shireen was, other than the IOF shooting directly at her."

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid commented on the report, saying that Israel would not allow its actions to be investigated by outside jurisdictions.

"No one will investigate [the actions of] Israel Defense Forces soldiers, and no one will preach to us about the principles of morality during hostilities, certainly not Al Jazeera," the Israeli government press office quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

Shireen Abu Akleh, who had dual citizenship (Palestinian and American), was fatally wounded on May 11 while covering an army raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin, during which armed clashes broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. Almost immediately, it was claimed that the journalist might have been killed by a sniper.

Israeli authorities offered to hold a joint investigation into the incident, suggesting that armed Palestinians might have targeted the media representatives. However, the Palestinian leadership rejected such proposals and any cooperation with the Israelis, stating that it intended to launch an international investigation and was preparing to refer the killing to the ICC.

In late June, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published an investigation into the journalist's death which concluded that she was killed by an Israeli military bullet. The Israeli state authorities rejected these findings. The Defense Ministry slammed the OHCHR version as unfounded and reiterated its call for the Palestinian side to cooperate in a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances of the journalist’s death.

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