A former United States colonel who served on the team that compiled the report on the killing of an Al Jazeera journalist and an American citizen by the Israeli military. Abu Aqleeh Former US President Joe Biden’s administration has been accused of not reaching conclusions in favor of Israel.
Col. Steve Gabawicz’s statement in an interview with The New York Times published Monday is the first time any military official involved in the report has spoken publicly. Gabavics previously spoke anonymously for a documentary by the Zeteo news agency.
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The official, who left the government in January, said he was “shocked” by a May 11, 2022, State Department statement describing Abu Aqleh’s killing as “the result of tragic circumstances.” The statement, the only official assessment of the killing to date by the US government, added that US authorities “have found no reason to believe it was intentional”.
At the time Abu Akleh was fatally shot in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Gabawicz was working in the United States Inter-Agency Office of the Security Coordinator, which oversees cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces.
The office, led by Lt. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel, was tasked by the Biden administration with preparing the report on the assassination, which fed the information to the State Department’s public accounts.
Gabawicz and four unnamed officials told the New York Times that the official US government line did little to reflect the heated debate among those compiling the report about whether the attack was intentional.
The report relies on findings from Israeli and Palestinian investigations, as well as monitoring site visits and ballistics analysis. The US has never released its own investigation into the murder. The FBI opened an investigation in 2022, though his status remains unknown.
Gabawicz said he is one of the officers who believes the shooting was intentional. The government’s watered-down account “continually tugged at my conscience”, he told the New York Times.
‘The bias is always in favor of the Israelis’
While it was not clear whether the soldier who fired the fatal shot was deliberately targeting Abu Aqleh, he would have known he was targeting a journalist, Gabawicz said.
The assessment is based on several probes rights groupsA United Nations Investigation AgencyPalestinian officials and media organizations, including Al Jazeera. For its part, Israel eventually admitted that one of its soldiers was likely behind the killing, which it called an “accident.” It said that no employee will be punished.
In support of his conclusion, Gabawicz pointed to Israeli radio military traffic that showed soldiers were aware of journalists in the area at the time of the shooting. He also said that there was no firing towards the journalists during the fatal firing.
An Israeli military vehicle was parked down the road from the group of journalists Abu Akleh was traveling with, which would have been clearly visible through a sniper scope, he said.
Gabawicz said the apparent accuracy of the shots did not indicate a spray of uncontrollable bullets. The fact that the soldier shot one of the producers, then Abu Aqleh, and then another man who tried to help also suggested intent.
He told the Times that had the shooting been an accident, “the stupidest thing in the world” would have happened.
“The guy got out of the truck, just randomly shooting, and it just so happened that he took really well-intentioned shots and never looked down the scope. Which shouldn’t have happened,” he said.
Gabawicz said he communicated his findings verbally and in writing to General Fenzel, but the account did not appear in the assessment shared with the State Department. Gabawicz and several officials said he was later sidelined from the review.
For his part, General Fenzel, in a statement to the Times, stood by his approach.
“Ultimately, I had to make a decision based on the full facts and information available to me,” he said. “I stand by the integrity of our work and I believe we reached the right conclusion.”
Gabwicz said the incident underscored the American bias toward Israel he saw while in office. The US provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, which it has increased during the war in Gaza.
“The bias is always towards the Israelis. Very little of it goes to the Palestinians,” he said.
He added that the case of Abu Aqleh had left the most lasting impact on his career.
“Because we had everything there,” he said.