WASHINGTON, DC (Al Jazeera) – A United States senator has called on President Joe Biden’s administration to make public a government report on the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
Democrat Chris Van Hollen said that he had reviewed the report by the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC) — weeks after he requested it from the State Department.
But Van Hollen said he now wants it declassified “in its entirety”.
“I strongly believe that its public release is vital to ensuring transparency and accountability in the shooting death of American citizen and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and to avoiding future preventable and wrongful deaths — goals we should all support,” the senator said in a statement.
Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian-American correspondent, was killed on May 11, 2022, while covering a raid by Zionist troops in Jenin, a city in the occupied West Bank.
At first, Zionist officials falsely accused Palestinian gunmen of fatally shooting Abu Akleh before acknowledging months later that she was likely killed by a Zionist soldier.
Still, the regime has dismissed the incident as unintentional and has not opened a criminal probe into the killing — prompting calls for the U.S., a staunch ally of the Zionist regime, to conduct its own investigation and seek accountability in the case.
Van Hollen said on Monday that the USSC, which oversees and encourages coordination between Zionist regime and Palestinian officials, was not granted access to key witnesses and was “unable to conduct an independent investigation” into the killing.
Still, the senator said the report provides “very important insights” into the incident, including on the Israeli unit involved in the operation that led to Abu Akleh’s death, “as well as other [Zionist military] units operating in the West Bank”.
The report is described as a “summation” document on other investigations of the incident.