The US is pressuring Israel to re-examine the IDF's rules of engagement in light of the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, Reuters reported.
State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday: "We will continue to press Israel directly and closely at the senior-most levels to review its policies and practices on this to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again in the future."
Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in response: "The instructions to open fire for our soldiers will be determined by the commanders of the IDF, independent of any pressure, internal or external."
"This is the truth: at any given moment there are Palestinian terrorists trying to murder Israelis. Not the other way around. Our hand is not quick to the trigger, but the moral imperative is to strike the terrorists and thus save human lives."
"As prime minister I gave full backing to our soldiers, and I expect our friends in the world not to preach morality to us but to back us up in our war on terror," he added.
On May 11th, 2022, as part of Operation “Break the Wave”, IDF soldiers carried out a series of counterterrorism activities in the Jenin area to prevent terrorism. In the weeks preceding the operation, 19 people were murdered in terrorist attacks, 11 out of which were carried out by terrorists from the area of Jenin. The counterterrorism activity took place in a densely populated civilian area. During the activity, wild and indiscriminate gunfire was shot toward IDF soldiers by Palestinian gunmen, at the time and in the area in which Ms. Shireen Abu Aqleh was killed. The Palestinian gunmen also hurled explosives at the soldiers and IDF military vehicles. Near the end of the activity, the journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was hit.
Yesterday, Israel released the results of its internal investigation, which found that it was likely that an IDF soldier accidentally shot Abu Aqleh during the firefight.