Palestinians Finally Hand over Bullet That Killed Al Jazeera Journalist to U.S.

The Palestinian Authority said on Saturday it would transfer the bullet that killed veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh to American officials for forensic testing, in the hopes of identifying whether the fatal shot fired was from an Israeli soldier or a Palestinian gunman.

“We will not hand over the bullet to Israel, but we agreed that the Americans will check it,” Palestinian Attorney General Akram al-Khateeb told Haaretz.

The decision comes ahead of President Joe Biden’s planned visit to Israel and the West Bank next week.

Khatib later told the WAFA news agency that the bullet had been handed over to “American experts who had arrived for this purpose.”

The PA has until now refused to hand over the bullet either to Israeli and U.S. authorities. It also refused to conduct a joint investigation.

“We refused a joint investigation, because those who fabricated the history of a people, stealing land and homeland, can fabricate a narrative. We do not trust them,” PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said at a memorial for Abu Akleh.

A bipartisan group of 25 U.S. lawmakers wrote a letter last month urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pressure the PA to release the bullet.

“We urge you to ask the Palestinian Authority to provide access to the forensic evidence in Abu Akleh’s death for an independent investigation so that all parties can reach a definitive conclusion about the events leading to her death, and hold all parties accountable,” the lawmakers wrote.

According to Haaretz, the PA eventually caved into U.S. pressure to hand over the bullet, and drew up an agreement to which Israel was not party.

However, the Israeli military on Sunday said it was the body in charge of conducting the ballistic analysis.

“The bullet was handed over to the Americans and will undergo a professional Israeli test in their presence. This is an IDF check, an IDF interrogation in an American presence, an Israeli interrogation,” IDF Spokesman Ran Kochav said on Sunday. “The Palestinians agreed to hand over the bullet to the Americans in order for an Israeli investigation to be conducted in their presence.”

According to Haaretz, Prime Minister Yair Lapid was involved in transferring the bullet to the Americans.

Deputy Interior Minister Yoav Segalovitz was cited as saying the tests could take several days and that it would involve a number of experts, in order to “verify that this is an unambiguous opinion and that there is no more spin like we’ve had in the past month, month and a half.”

Abu Akleh, who was also an American citizen, was killed during a firefight in the West Bank city of Jenin in May. Israeli troops entered a refugee camp in Jenin to arrest terror suspects in a raid that came amid a spate of terror attacks that killed 19 Israelis.