On the eve of President Joe Biden’s closely watched visit to Israel and the West Bank, a group of Democratic senators demanded accountability for the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whom US investigators concluded most likely died by Israeli gunfire. 

The State Department said on July 4 that US officials had determined that a bullet fired from Israeli military lines was “likely responsible” for Abu Akleh's shooting death. The United States Security Coordinator, which oversees security ties between Israel and the Palestinians, found "no reason to believe” Israel intentionally targeted the journalist. 

Abu Akleh, a veteran correspondent for Al Jazeera, was fatally shot while reporting on a raid in the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp on May 11. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the recovered bullet was too badly damaged to reach a definite conclusion about the source of the gunfire.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) wrote that the US review “hardly constitutes an independent investigation into the overall circumstances of her killing.”