Palestine will not accept Israeli probes into killing of Abu Akleh

By Betul Yuruk

NEW YORK (AA) - Palestine's envoy to the UN has stated that an Israeli investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist in the occupied West Bank will not be accepted.

On Wednesday, Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, was shot in the head by the Israeli army while covering a military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, envoy Riyad Mansour, blamed Israeli forces for Abu Akleh’s death.

He went on to say that an investigation by Israel will not be accepted as it was the "guilty" party.

Mansour asserted that Palestine demands an independent international investigation.

Abu Akleh was born in Jerusalem in 1971 and over the past two and a half decades, she was one of Al Jazeera’s elite journalists covering the situation across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Al Jazeera accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing its veteran journalist Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli army said that its initial assessments indicated that Abu Akleh was "killed by Palestinian gunmen."

Also, the Palestinian Authority confirmed that Abu Akleh was “shot dead by the Israeli army.”

* Writing by Mahmoud Barakat