Israeli tank killed Reuters journalist in Lebanon, Dutch organization concludes

An Israeli tank crew fired two missiles and likely also heavy machine guns at a group of clearly identified journalists in Lebanon on 13 October 2023, the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) concluded after analyzing the attack at Reuters’ request. The attack on the press left a Reuters visual journalist dead and several journalists from Reuters, AFP, and Al-Jazeera injured.

The journalists were on a hilltop near the village of Aalma el-Chaab in southern Lebanon, close to the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel when the Israeli tank fired on them. They wore bulletproof vests with the word “press” clearly stated on them.

The Israeli Merkava tank was 1.34 kilometers away on the Israel side of the line when it fired on the journalists in an attack that lasted 1 minute and 45 seconds, TNO said. It fired two 120 mm rounds at the reporters. The first killed Reuters visual journalist Issam Abdallah.

Audio picked up by an Al Jazeera video camera at the scene, which continued recording through the attack, showed that the journalists also came under fire from 0.50 caliber rounds. The fire lasted several seconds.

"It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists," TNO said in its report. "The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of fire could not be established."

In addition to killing Abdallah, the attack also left AFP photographer Christina Assi critically injured. Several other journalists from Reuters, AFP, and Al Jazeera also got hurt.

“We condemn, in the strongest terms, the attack on a clearly identifiable group of journalists working in the open,” Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said. “We reiterate our calls on Israel to explain how this could have happened and to hold those responsible to account.”

AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd demanded a thorough and transparent investigation by the Israeli army. "If reports of sustained machine gun fire are confirmed, this would add more weight to the theory this was a targeted and deliberate attack," he said to Reuters.

"This incident strongly indicates intentional targeting, as confirmed by investigations, including by TNO,” Ihtisham Hibatullah, manager of international communications at Al Jazeera, told Reuters.

The Israeli Defense Forces and Lebanon’s Minister of Information did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.