It looks like it wasn't a joke.
From Arutz-7:
Leading physicist and ballistic expert Nahum Shahaf, who refuted the story of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah being shot by IDF soldiers in the opening days of the Second Intifada, discussed the US State Department's announcement that it was not possible to determine who killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh as she was recording a firefight between IDF soldiers and terrorists in Jenin on May 11, 2022.Shahaf points out that "the bullet underwent a severe transformation at the hands of a hammer that created a deep depression in its back, which cannot be formed by the projectile's movement alone", noting that while the Americans ruled that it was impossible to determine who was behind Abu Aqleh's death, they ended up stating that it was likely the result of IDF fire - a fact pointing to the investigators' anti-Semitic bias.Regarding alterations made to the bullet prior to the PA allowing foreign experts to analyze it, Shahaf says he can detect streaks of crushing as well as an internal depression, which can only be produced by a hammer of enormous weight. The squeezing in question was performed on the back of the bullet and not its front, which smashes on impact.
It does not appear that Shahaf is on the team that is investigating the shooting, so I am assuming that he is basing this on the photo of the bullet that Al Jazeera published, claiming it was the one that killed Abu Akleh.
If you look at it, it indeed looks like someone took a hammer to it.
I cannot imagine how the back of a bullet could be crushed like that only from gunfire, especially given how dense bullets are. Here is a cross section of a M855A1 bullet typically used with an M4:
It would take enormous pressure to flatten that.
To my understanding, the back of the bullet is where the striations would be seen that can match the bullet to a test round from a weapon. If someone wanted to make a bullet impossible to match, the back of the bullet is exactly what they would want to tamper with.
Keep in mind that without comparing the bullet handed over to an X-ray of the bullet in Abu Akleh's head, it is impossible to know whether this is even the correct bullet to begin with. We have seen absolutely no evidence of even a modicum of professionalism from the Palestinian side to prove a chain of custody of the bullet. Again, I am no expert, but I would have thought that the front of the bullet would be more deformed ("mushroomed") from hitting her skull and the inside of her helmet than the photo here shows.
(h/t Andrew)
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