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Israeli military apologizes for death of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
(JTA) — A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces apologized for the death of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, one year after she was killed while on assignment covering clashes in the West Bank city of Jenin.
“I think it’s an opportunity for me to say here that we are very sorry of the death of the late Shireen Abu Akleh,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s chief spokesman, in an appearance Thursday night on CNN. “She was a journalist, a very established journalist. In Israel we are a democracy and in a democracy we see high value in journalism and in a free press. And we want journalists to feel safe in Israel, especially in war time. And even if they criticize us, we want them to feel safe.”
The apology came as Israel is engaged in a conflict with Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, which the United States has designated as a terror group.
“We are very sorry of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh.”
IDF chief spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari to CNN’s @EleniGiokos a year to the day after the well-known Al Jazeera correspondent was killed while covering an Israeli military operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/JJanmI8zjN
— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) May 11, 2023
The apology is the latest stage in Israel’s shifting response to Abu Akleh’s death. At first, the IDF said it was likely not responsible for her death. But following multiple investigations by third parties indicating that Israeli forces likely killed Abu Akleh, the military acknowledged after its own probe that “there is a high probability” that an Israeli soldier fired the bullet. Israel maintains that her death was an accident.
Abu Akleh was an American citizen, and the U.S. government faced pressure to investigate her death. The United States endorsed Israel’s findings but the FBI opened an investigation into the incident months later. Israel criticized that probe and did not cooperate with it.
This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report examining the deaths of 20 journalists in the West Bank and Gaza since 2001 at the hands of the IDF. Eighteen of the 20 were Palestinian. The report criticized Israel’s investigations of the killings as lackluster and said, “No one has ever been charged or held accountable for these deaths.”
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The post Israeli military apologizes for death of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
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In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
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Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.