Medics had to restrain Palestinian journalist Ali al-Samoudi while tending to his bullet wound when the body of his colleague Shireen Abu Akleh arrived at Ibn Sina hospital in the occupied West Bank.
“I managed to look and see Shireen lying next to me. I couldn’t believe the situation. I started screaming, and I tried to get to her. They didn’t let me,” said al-Samoudi as he recounted to Al Jazeera the events of May 11, 2022.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“But I knew from my experience in field work that it was clear that she had been killed.”
Earlier that day, Israeli soldiers had shot al-Samoudi in the back before firing another bullet that claimed the life of Abu Akleh, a US citizen and veteran Al Jazeera correspondent who was renowned across the Arab world.
Monday marks the fourth anniversary of the killing of Abu Akleh.
Immediately following the shooting, Al Jazeera denounced it as an assassination in “cold blood”. Since then, Israel has killed hundreds of journalists and more than 10 US citizens in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank.
None of the killings, including the Abu Akleh case, led to any arrest or charges.
Advocates say Washington’s failure to ensure accountability for the Al Jazeera correspondent set the stage for greater Israeli abuses against the press.
“The absence of accountability, the absence of justice, the absence of the law and the failure to prosecute the perpetrators of the crime of assassination of Shireen led to these miseries that we are witnessing and the systemic and widespread killing of journalists,” al-Samoudi said.
“Now Israel – with the utmost ease – says it is executing journalists.”
US role
Al-Samoudi argued that the US has a special responsibility to ensure justice for Abu Akleh because the reporter was an American citizen and due to Washington’s close ties to Israel.
The US provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid each year and provides diplomatic cover to its Middle East ally at the United Nations and other international forums.
“If the US had imposed the appropriate measures and sanctions against Israel over the killing of Shireen, it may have saved hundreds of Palestinian journalists and civilians,” al-Samoudi said, calling on US officials to “wake up” and stand against Israeli abuses.
“All this bias, all this support for Israel has proven to be a violation to our right to freedom and to exist as humans,” al-Samoudi said.
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, echoed that assessment.
“The US is the only power that could play a role here. It has levers it chooses not to use,” Zogby told Al Jazeera.
While Israeli officials confirmed in late 2022 that the US opened an investigation into the shooting of Abu Akleh, the probe has not led to any public reports or criminal charges.
Al-Samoudi, one of the few eyewitnesses to the shooting, said he was only interviewed by US officials once, and there was no follow-up.
The Department of Justice, which oversees the FBI, did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment by the time of publication.
The administration of former President Joe Biden did not confirm the FBI probe, and it has adopted the Israeli narrative that the killing of Abu Akleh was accidental.
Martin Roux, head of the crisis desk at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said the killing of Abu Akleh sent a message that “Israel would be free to terrorise Palestinian journalists without consequence”.
“This was part of a long series of targeted killings of Palestinian reporters by the Israeli army. Unfortunately, we see not only a lack of accountability and justice but a lack of pressure from Israel’s allies such as the United States,” Roux told Al Jazeera.
What happened that day?
Despite the Israeli assertions that the shooting was not deliberate, al-Samoudi – who was working for Al Jazeera at that time – has stressed that he is certain that he and Abu Akleh were targeted.
The two Al Jazeera journalists had arrived at the western edge of the Jenin refugee camp along with other reporters that morning, where the Israeli military was carrying out a raid.
A row of Israeli military vehicles was parked up on a side street. The journalists were in clearly marked press gear.
“We entered the street. There were no [Palestinian] fighters. There were no clashes of any kind near us. There weren’t even any stone throwers. We were also far from Palestinian civilians who were behind us,” al-Samoudi said.
“As journalists, we were alone. We were looking at the Israeli army to get close to them to find a safe spot for coverage.”
Then the first shot rang. Al-Samoudi, who was at the front, turned around to alert Abu Akleh that Israeli soldiers were firing.
“I was telling her, ‘Let’s go back; it looks like they’re shooting towards us.’ As soon as I finished my sentence, I felt like something struck me. I put my hand on my back and found blood,” he said.
“Turning around made the bullet hit my back. The soldiers likely wanted to shoot me in the chest.”
According to al-Samoudi, Abu Akleh’s final words were, “Ali got injured”.
“The sniper who fired kept firing. I ran away. I was bleeding heavily. Shireen retreated and stood by a wall,” al-Samoudi said.
“I was running back to get to a hospital, so I didn’t look, or else I would have seen her getting shot. I got into a civilian car and told the driver to take me to the hospital, and we drove to Ibn Sina hospital, which was about 500 metres away.”
The journalists were visible and did not pose a threat to Israeli forces, al-Samoudi said, adding that there was no warning before the shooting.
“If they had told us to leave, we would have left,” he said.
Al-Samoudi highlighted that Abu Akleh was shot in the neck in a small, exposed area between her helmet and protective jacket.
“This was not an accident or a coincidence,” he said.
The killing of Abu Akleh came at a time when Israel was stepping up its deadly raids in the West Bank, with the government of then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pushing to portray itself as uncompromising against Palestinians amid criticism from the right.
Before the genocidal war on Gaza that broke out in October 2023, the UN declared 2022 the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in 16 years.
Al-Samoudi said the killing of Abu Akleh was a “targeted attack” aimed at Al Jazeera for its coverage of the Israeli assaults in the West Bank, particularly in Jenin.
“They didn’t want us to be there. There was an Israeli plan to commit more crimes against Palestinians,” he said.
“They didn’t want any eyewitnesses. They didn’t want any documentation. They didn’t want anyone to expose these Israeli abuses.”
‘Obfuscating’
After Abu Akleh was killed, Bennett falsely claimed that the correspondent was shot by Palestinian fighters, sharing a video of clashes that were streets away from the site of the shooting.
When that narrative collapsed, Israel said it opened an investigation into the incident.
In September of that year, the Israeli military said there was a “high possibility” that Abu Akleh was “accidentally hit” by Israeli fire.
The conclusion was at odds with the accounts of eyewitnesses and the investigations of several media outlets that found that Abu Akleh was targeted.
“Israel’s response to her killing set a template of denying, lying and obfuscating. First they say they didn’t do it. Then they say that somebody else did it. And finally, they say that they’ll look into it,” Zogby said.
“It’s a way to avoid accountability that Israel has used as a tried-and-true practice for all sorts of crimes. And because it worked, it creates a sense of impunity. Israel believes they can get away with it.”
He added that the US was “adopting the Israeli game plan” in dealing with the killing.
“Part of the process of obfuscation came from the US. They started an investigation and four years later there are still no answers. It is a means of shielding Israel through delay,” he said.
Over the past year, the US and Israel have also responded to the killing of other US citizens by Israeli soldiers and settlers with investigations that have not led to any charges.
For example, last year, US ambassador Mike Huckabee called on Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing of 20-year-old American citizen Sayfollah Musallet, who was beaten to death by settlers in the West Bank.
But 10 months later, there are still no criminal charges in the case.
Omar Shakir, executive director at DAWN, said the rights group has documented at least 14 US citizens killed by Israeli forces or settlers since 2003, but none of the perpetrators has been held accountable.
“When the United States failed to impose consequences on Israel for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, it sent a clear message: American lives do not matter when Israel kills them,” Shakir told Al Jazeera. “That climate of impunity has had deadly consequences.”
‘The coverage continues’
Over the past four years, Israel has become the top killer of journalists in the world, according to press freedom groups.
In many instances, the Israeli military has been documenting and sharing footage of assassinations of journalists, baselessly claiming that they belonged to Palestinian or Lebanese armed groups.
Israeli attacks have killed several Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, including prominent TV correspondents Ismail al-Ghoul and Anas al-Sharif.
In the West Bank, press freedom has also been under attack by Israel. Al-Samoudi was only released earlier this month after spending a year in Israeli administrative detention, where he endured abuse and lost a significant amount of weight.
Al-Samoudi said, in addition to the existing challenges, journalists in the West Bank are facing the growing threat of violent settlers, backed by the Israeli military.
“There are assaults against journalists. There are restrictions on their movement. There are brutal attacks and injuries,” he said.
In one of his first executive orders after returning to the White House last year, Trump lifted US sanctions against far-right Israeli settlers accused of carrying out and encouraging attacks against Palestinian civilians.
Al-Samoudi also underscored the growing trend of detaining journalists without a charge to which he himself has fallen victim.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, more than 40 Palestinian journalists remain in Israeli prisons.
“They want to stop us from doing our work, especially that we are the friends and colleagues of Shireen. We have said, and we will continue to say, ‘the coverage continues.’ Shireen Abu Akleh’s voice will not be silenced,” al-Samoudi said.
Al-Samoudi hailed Abu Akleh, stressing that her legacy will endure for generations.
“Shireen represented a comprehensive school in journalism, in humanity, in morality, in superior ideals. She was committed to fulfilling her mission with professionalism. Her coverage of the news was not ordinary or traditional,” he said.
“She was able to analyse, describe and report on any situation with sophistication, which granted her an elevated status that allowed her to get closer to the people and earn the respect of everyone. Generations will learn from her. Shireen Abu Akleh is the Palestinian flame that will never be extinguished.”
