Bullet That Killed Al Jazeera Reporter Shireen Abu Akleh To Be Tested US, Israel: If We Killed Her, We Will Take Responsibility

JAKARTA - Israel said on Sunday it would test the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist to determine whether one of its soldiers shot her and said a US observer would attend.

Earlier, the Palestinians handed over the bullets to the US security coordinator on Saturday, saying they had been assured Israel would not take part in the ballistic test.

The death of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 during Israel's offensive in the occupied West Bank, as well as the feud between the two sides over the circumstances, has overshadowed US President Joe Biden's scheduled visit this month.

Palestinians say the Israeli military deliberately killed Abu Akleh. Israel denies this, saying he may have been hit by the wrong soldier's fire or a bullet from one of the Palestinian gunmen, who clashed with his troops at the scene.

"The (ballistic) test will not be carried out by the Americans. The test will be an Israeli test, with an American representative present," Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Ran Kochav said.

"In the coming days or hours it will become clear whether even we killed him, by accident, or whether it was Palestinian gunmen," he told Army Radio.

"If we kill her, we will take responsibility and regret what happened," he said.

Separately, Akram al-Khatib, the attorney general for the Palestinian Authority, said the tests would be conducted at the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

"We got assurances from the American coordinators that the checks will be carried out by them and the Israeli side will not take part," Al-Khatib told Voice of Palestine radio, adding he expected the bullets to be returned on Sunday.

A spokesman for the US embassy said: "We don't have anything new at this time."

"It will take several days to carry out a ballistic test, with some experts, to ensure that there is a firm assessment," Israel's Deputy Interior Security Minister Yoav Segalovitz told Army Radio.

Israel says the person who fired the bullet can only be determined by matching it to a gun in a forensic laboratory. Such testing usually requires finding the marks on the bullet left by the unique barrel of the gun from which it was fired.

The Israeli military had previously said a soldier could have been in a position to fire the fatal shot, suggesting that it might only be considering the soldier's rifle.

President Biden is expected to hold separate meetings with Palestinian and Israeli leaders on his July 13-16 trip to the Middle East. The Abu Akleh case will be a diplomatic and domestic test for Israel's new Prime Minister Yair Lapid.