Israeli strike on journalists in Lebanon warrants ‘war crime’ probe: watchdogs

The Israeli strike that killed one journalist and injured six others in Lebanon merits a “war crime” investigation, rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch told AFP on Thursday.

Issam Abdallah, 37, was killed instantly in the strike on October 13 in the south of the country near the Israeli border. The others present — two other Reuters journalists, two from Al Jazeera, and two from AFP — were all injured.

AFP photographer Christina Assi, 28, was seriously wounded, later had a leg amputated and is still in hospital.

Independent investigations by both rights groups concluded that the first strike that killed Abdallah and severely wounded Assi was most likely a tank round fired from Israel.

Amnesty said the strikes “were likely a direct attack on civilians that must be investigated as a war crime”.

“Those responsible for Issam Abdallah’s unlawful killing and the injuring of six other journalists must be held accountable,” said Aya Majzoub, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“No journalist should ever be targeted or killed simply for carrying out their work. Israel must not be allowed to kill and attack journalists with impunity.” HRW said the two Israeli strikes “were apparently deliberate attacks on civilians, which is a war crime”.

Under international humanitarian law, “it is forbidden in any circumstances to carry out direct attacks against civilians”, it said.

The group’s investigation indicated that the journalists were “well removed from ongoing hostilities, clearly identifiable as members of the media, and had been stationary for at least 75 minutes before they were hit”.

Amnesty said images it verified showed “the seven journalists were wearing body armour labelled ‘press’, and that the blue Reuters crew car was marked ‘TV’ with yellow tape on its hood”.

“The evidence strongly suggests that Israeli forces knew or should have known that the group that they were attacking were journalists,” HRW’s Lebanon researcher Ramzi Kaiss said.

“This is an unlawful and apparently deliberate attack on a very visible group of journalists.” Since October 7, 63 journalists and media workers — 56 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese — have been killed, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.