Former US Ambassador to the United States and former US President Joe Biden have accused the administration of softening its conclusions in favor of Israel in a report from a team that investigated the Israeli military’s killing of Al Jazeera journalist and US citizen Shireen Abu Akleh.
The first time a military official involved in the report has spoken out in public was Colonel Steve Gabavics’ statement in an interview with the New York Times that was released on Monday. Gambavis had previously made an anonymous statement for a Zeteo news organization documentary.
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The official, who left the government in January, described being “flabbergasted” by a State Department statement that claimed Abu Akleh’s death on May 11, 2022, was “the result of tragic circumstances.” The US government’s only official assessment of the killing to date, which added that there was “no reason to believe that this was intentional,” was added in the statement.
Gabavics was employed by the inter-agency Office of the United States Security Coordinator, which oversees cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces, when Abu Akleh was fatally shot in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The Biden administration had assigned the office, which was led by Lieutenant General Michael R. Fenzel, to create a report on the killing that would become available to the State Department.
Gabavics and four unnamed US government officials told the New York Times that the report’s focus on whether the attack was intentional was poorly reflected in the passionate discussion that broke out between them.
As well as visiting the site and overseeing a ballistic analysis, the report relied on findings from Israeli and Palestinian investigations. The US has never made the killing’s own investigation public. The FBI’s investigation was launched in 2022, but its status is still unknown.
Gabavics claimed to be one of the authorities who thought the shooting was a deliberate one. He told the New York Times, “My conscience was on my conscience nonstop,” the government’s watered-down account.
The phrase “Favoritism always applies to Israelis” is true.
According to Gabavics, it was unclear whether the soldier who fired the fatal shot was actually aiming at Abu Akleh or whether he had at least known that he was doing so.
The assessment aligns with several inquiries by Palestinian officials, UN investigators, and media outlets, including Al Jazeera. Israel eventually acknowledged that one of its soldiers was probably responsible for the killing, which it termed “an accident.” No personnel would be punished, it said.
Gabavics cited Israeli radio military traffic to back up his conclusion, which indicated soldiers were aware of journalists’ presence in the area at the time of the shooting. He added that the journalists’ journalists had not opened fire when the fatal shooting occurred.
Abu Akleh claimed a sniper scope would have been a clear sight when an Israeli military vehicle had been parked across the road from the group of journalists he was accompanying.
Gabavics claimed that the shots’ apparent precision did not indicate an uncontrolled spray. The soldier’s intentionality was also demonstrated by the fact that he shot at a producer, followed by Abu Akleh, and finally at another aid worker.
According to him, “the most absurd thing in the world” would have to have happened for the shooting to have been an accident.
“The person just came out of the truck and was just randomly shooting, and they just happened to have really well-aimed shots and never looked down the scope.” He claimed that “which wouldn’t have occurred”  ,
Gabavics claimed to have written and verbally to General Fenzel, but that his statement was missing from the State Department’s assessment. Gambavics and a number of officials claimed that the review ended with him being removed.
General Fenzel, on his part, defended his choice in a Times statement.
He said, “Ultimately, I had to make judgments based on the full range of facts and information that was at my disposal.” I firmly believe that our work was conducted truthfully and that the conclusions we made were accurate.
Gabavics claimed that the incident heightened the office’s bias toward Israel that he had witnessed. Israel receives billions of dollars in military aid from the US, which has increased since the US’s war in Gaza.
“The Israelis are always the recipients of the favoritism.” He claimed that very little of that is given to Palestinians.
He continued, noting that Abu Akleh’s case had the biggest impact on his career overall.
