NEW YORK: A new documentary purports to name the Israeli soldier who killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down in the West Bank while reporting in 2022.
Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist known for her coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, was shot dead in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank while she worked, wearing a bulletproof vest marked “press.”
Al Jazeera and witnesses immediately blamed the Israeli army. Then Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said it was probable the shots had come from Palestinian militants.
In the weeks that followed, several journalistic investigations pointed the blame at Israeli gunfire.
Months later, Israel released an internal investigation that found a “high probability” that Abu Akleh was accidentally shot by the Israeli army, which claimed it was targeting armed Palestinians.
Produced by independent news site Zeteo, the documentary “Who killed Shireen?” names for the first time the suspect as Alon Scaggio, an elite soldier.
“Israel did everything it could to conceal the soldier’s identity, they wouldn’t provide the US with any information. They wouldn’t let the US interview him. They wouldn’t give the US his statement. And they wouldn’t give his name,” said Dion Nissenbaum, a journalist who worked on the film.
Assisted by producer Conor Powell and reporter Fatima AbdulKarim — who worked for The New York Times in the West Bank — Nissenbaum, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent, consulted testimony from two Israeli soldiers present in Jenin on May 11, 2022 as well as top US officials.
The documentary alleges that Scaggio, then 20, had completed training for the elite Duvdevan unit just three months prior.
“He shot her intentionally. There’s no question about that. The question is did he know she was a journalist and did he know she was Shireen Abu Akleh? Was it an order from above?” Nissenbaum told AFP.
“Personally, I don’t think it was an order. I don’t think he knew it was Shireen. Nobody ever has indicated that he could tell that it was Shireen. But she was wearing the blue flak-jacket with the word ‘press’ on it.”
“The evidence (suggests)... it was an intentional killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. Whether or not they knew it was her or not can very well be debated, but they would have absolutely known that it was a media person or a non-combatant at a minimum,” said a senior official from the administration of then US president Joe Biden, speaking in the film anonymously.
Washington did not exert significant pressure on the issue, the documentary claims, for fear of antagonizing its ally.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said he called on Biden to declassify documents about the killing — but went unanswered.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said “it is the first time that a potential suspect has been named in connection with an Israeli killing of a journalist” according to its records dating back to 1992.
Impunity in the case “has effectively given Israel permission to silence hundreds more” journalists, the CPJ said.
Reporters Without Borders estimates around 200 journalists were killed in the past 18 months of Israeli strikes on Gaza.
An Israeli army spokesman condemned the unauthorized disclosure of the suspect’s name despite no “definitive determination” of who shot Abu Akleh.
The soldier in question “fell during an operational activity,” the army added.
Nissenbaum had initially thought Scaggio died in Gaza, but ultimately concluded he was killed in Jenin on June 27, 2024 almost two years after Abu Akleh.
Film claims to name killer of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
https://arab.news/yekff
Film claims to name killer of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
- Produced by independent news site Zeteo, the documentary “Who killed Shireen?” names for the first time the suspect as Alon Scaggio, an elite soldier
Journalist fatalities worldwide match record high in 2025, media watchdog reports
- Watchdog says this year’s death toll was once again driven by Israel’s ongoing attacks on journalists in Gaza
- With more than two weeks of the year remaining, the CPJ described the situation as “another record year of killings.”
LONDON: The number of journalists and media workers killed worldwide in 2025 has already matched last year’s record high of 126 deaths, according to new data released by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The watchdog says this year’s death toll was once again driven by Israel’s ongoing attacks on journalists in Gaza, alongside escalating risks in Sudan, Iran, Yemen and other conflict zones.
With more than two weeks of the year remaining, the CPJ described the situation as “another record year of killings.”
“At a time of rising global instability, access to accurate information is more important than ever — yet journalists continue to be killed in record numbers,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “In too many cases, those responsible for journalists’ deaths are getting away with murder.”
She added the record number of deaths showed “not enough is being done globally to tackle attacks on the press.”
Israel’s war on Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in CPJ’s records, with nearly 250 media workers killed since 2023. The watchdog said this “more journalists than have been killed by any other nation since CPJ began keeping records in 1992.”
In 2025 alone, at least 86 journalists and media workers were killed by Israeli attacks — up from 85 last year — with many deaths recorded after October’s ceasefire agreement.
The CPJ said that in multiple cases, journalists were “deliberately targeted,” and reiterated calls for international accountability. The organization also referenced international rights groups and UN experts who have described the Israeli campaign in Gaza as a genocide.
Sudan emerged as another epicenter of media violence. In 2025, at least nine journalists were killed, bringing the total to 15 since the civil war erupted two years ago. The CPJ said journalists in Sudan have faced abductions, rape and forced displacement, with the Rapid Support Forces implicated in multiple attacks.
Four journalists were killed this year in Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine, marking an increase from one death recorded last year.
Beyond active conflict zones, journalists continued to face lethal threats in politically unstable environments. In Mexico, six journalists were killed in 2025, up from five the previous year, while three were killed in the Philippines.
The organization highlighted the persistence of press killings in India, Pakistan and Iraq, where decades of violence, weak legal frameworks and political targeting have left journalists vulnerable.
