Al Jazeera reporter

Shireen Abu Akleh

was shot and killed by Israeli security forces.

This is the conclusion of a

UN

investigation .

The Palestinian-American journalist, wearing a jacket marked "Press" and a helmet, was killed on May 11 while covering an Israeli army operation in the

Jenin

camp in the northern West Bank.

Israeli and Palestinian authorities have exchanged accusations of responsibility for her death.

"The shots that killed

Abu Akleh

and injured his colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate fire from armed Palestinians, as initially claimed by Israeli authorities," the spokeswoman for the Security Office told reporters in Geneva. UN Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani. 

"It is deeply disturbing that the Israeli authorities have not conducted a criminal investigation", continued Shamdasani, explaining that "we at the United Nations

Human Rights Office

have concluded our independent monitoring of the incident".   

The UN official added that the information comes from the Israeli army and the Palestinian attorney general.

The

spokeswoman

also said: "The journalists said they chose a part of the road to approach the Palestinian position, taking care to proceed slowly and to make their presence visible to the Israeli armed forces stationed at the end of the road" and continued "the our findings indicate that no warning was given.

Several apparently well-aimed single shots

were fired in the direction of journalists from the side occupied by Israeli forces.”

Shamdasani continued "Other shots were directed at a man, whose identity is not known, who had approached Abu Akleh to help her like the journalist who had found refuge behind a tree."

Michelle Bachelet

, head of the UN Human Rights Office, continued to call on the Israeli authorities to open a criminal investigation into what happened.

Israel's response

"She was not shot intentionally by any Israeli soldier," a military spokesman narrowly retorted.

"It is still not possible to determine whether she was killed by Palestinian militiamen shooting indiscriminately or inadvertently by an Israeli soldier," he added.

"The Palestinian refusal to hand over the bullet and to conduct joint investigations with the US - she concluded - speaks volumes about the reasons".