The Israeli military has concluded there is a "high probability" that one of its soldiers killed the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla.

The veteran Al Jazeera correspondent was shot in the head while covering a raid in the occupied West Bank in May.

It is the closest the military has come to admitting responsibility.

The military's top legal officer has also ruled out a criminal investigation of the soldiers involved, effectively ending the probe into the case.

Abu Aqla's family said they were "not surprised" that the IDF was trying to obscure the truth and avoid responsibility for her killing.

Abu Aqla arrived in Jenin refugee camp on 11 May to report on an Israeli army raid which had seen gun battles break out between soldiers and Palestinian militants. She was wearing a helmet and blue flak jacket marked with the word "press".

The military's account of how she was killed has been the subject of bitter recriminations.

Eyewitnesses and Palestinian officials reported she was shot by Israeli troops - a finding later backed by the United Nations and multiple press investigations of the evidence. A US review also found it was "likely" that Israeli soldiers fired the fatal bullet.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had completed several internal probes.

A senior IDF official said on Monday that there was a high probability that she was shot "by mistake by an IDF soldier, and of course he didn't identify her as a journalist".

He also revealed investigators had spoken to the soldier involved: "He told us what he did; and if he did it, it was done by mistake."

"I want to emphasise the fighting environment that these soldiers were under. They were confined in a protected vehicle with multi-dimensional fire from every direction," the official said.

However, video evidence from the moment Abu Aqla was shot does not back the claim of militant gunfire in the spot that journalists and bystanders had gathered.

Israeli troops were believed to be 200m (656ft) away, and the footage shows repeated fire for several minutes towards the area where the journalists were walking.

Asked by the BBC about the footage, the senior IDF official said soldiers were under fire and could not see what was happening from inside their jeep, adding they could not see the journalists gathered.

The lack of a criminal investigation will anger Palestinians and will come as a further blow to Abu Aqla's family.

Responding to the IDF announcement they said: "It's obvious to anyone that Israeli war criminals cannot investigate their own crimes. However, we remain deeply hurt, frustrated, and disappointed."

Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups have long criticised the IDF's mechanism for internal investigations, arguing that it grants soldiers near total impunity when it comes to prosecution in cases of harming Palestinians.