In a highly critical ruling, Israel's High Court described the police investigation into the girl's death as a sordid affair that had been both sloppy and negligent and ordered the state to pay the family's legal costs.

But it backed an earlier decision not to charge two border policemen allegedly involved in her death, in part because of the difficulty of conducting an investigation so long after the incident in the absence of fresh evidence.

Human rights organisation Yesh Din, which had petitioned the court to indict the policemen, expressed its dismay. An innocent girl was shot and somebody has to take responsibility, said Haim Erlich, the NGO's director. No justice was done.

Abir was fatally wounded in January 2007 after buying snacks with her sister and two friends during a school break in the West Bank town of Anata.