The bullet that killed American-Palestinian reporter Shireen Abu Akleh is too badly damaged to determine who fired the fatal shot, even though it was likely to have been an Israeli soldier, the US State Department said on Monday.
Abu Akleh, a veteran reporter on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was killed while covering an Israeli military raid against Palestinian militants near Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 11. Palestinian authorities on Sunday said they had handed the bullet recovered during her postmortem to US investigators for analysis.
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank says Abu Akleh was shot by an Israeli soldier, a claim backed by a UN investigation into the circumstances of her death. However, the PA refused to hand the bullet to Israel and said it would do so only to independent investigators.
Ballistic experts determined the bullet was badly damaged, which prevented a clear conclusion
Ned Price,
US State Department spokesman
State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that "after an extremely detailed forensic analysis, independent, third-party examiners, as part of a process overseen by the US Security Co-ordinator, could not reach a definitive conclusion regarding the origin of the bullet".
"Ballistic experts determined the bullet was badly damaged, which prevented a clear conclusion," he said in a statement.
US security officials examined the results of both Palestinian and Israeli investigations and “concluded that gunfire from [Israeli military] positions was likely responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh".
The US “found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances during an [Israeli military]-led military operation,” he said.
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said forces had responded to heavy fire from gunmen in the city, which houses a crowded refugee camp that has seen regular clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops.
"The first to bear responsibility in such events, are the terrorists who operate from within population centers," he said in a statement.
That version of events has been rejected by Palestinians who say there were no armed fighters in the area where Abu Akleh was killed.
"The truth is that the Israeli military killed Shireen according to policies that view all Palestinians — civilian, press or otherwise — as legitimate targets," her family said in a statement.
"The focus on the bullet has always been misplaced and was an attempt by the Israeli side to spin the narrative in its favour."
A senior Palestinian official accused the US of protecting Israel after Mr Price announced the findings.
"The truth is clear but the US administration continues to stall in announcing it," Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, told Reuters.
"We say Israel killed Shireen Abu Akleh and it has to be held responsible for the crime it has committed."
Abu Akleh's family said: "All available evidence suggests that a US citizen was the subject of an extrajudicial killing by a foreign government that receives billions of dollars in American military aid each year to perpetuate a prolonged and entrenched military occupation of millions of Palestinians."
The Israeli military said it would continue its investigation into the reporter's death.
A decision on whether to launch a criminal investigation will be made after the conclusion of its operational analysis, it said in a statement on Monday.
The military said the bullet was handed over to the US Security Co-ordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Saturday and tested by Israeli experts in the presence of USCC representatives at a forensic laboratory in Israel.
"The bullet remained under the custodianship of [US Army] Lt Gen Michael R Fenzel after receiving it from the Palestinian authorities until it was returned yesterday after the examination was conducted," the statement said.
Shireen Abu Akleh's memorial service - in pictures
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Jawan
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Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
MATCH INFO
RB Leipzig 2 (Klostermann 24', Schick 68')
Hertha Berlin 2 (Grujic 9', Piatek 82' pen)
Man of the match Matheus Cunha (Hertha Berlin
TWISTERS
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Starring: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos
Rating: 2.5/5
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
Naga
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The rules of the road keeping cyclists safe
Cyclists must wear a helmet, arm and knee pads
Have a white front-light and a back red-light on their bike
They must place a number plate with reflective light to the back of the bike to alert road-users
Avoid carrying weights that could cause the bike to lose balance
They must cycle on designated lanes and areas and ride safe on pavements to avoid bumping into pedestrians
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
