NEW YORK, October 11, 2024 (WAFA) – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) stated Thursday that Israel has faced zero accountability for the targeting of journalists.
A year on, there is still no accountability following the October 13, 2023, targeted Israeli attack that killed Issam Abdallah and injured six journalists in southern Lebanon
“In spite of extensive evidence of a war crime, a year on from the attack, Israel has faced zero accountability for the targeting of journalists. With over two decades of targeted attacks on journalists without any consequences, the Israeli military has been granted license to continue this deadly pattern,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said.
CPD voiced dismay at the failure to investigate the attack launched by Israeli occupation forces on October 13, 2023, killing Issam Abdallah and injuring six journalists in southern Lebanon
It pointed out that “a year on, there is still no accountability following the October 13, 2023, attack.”
It recalled that in March 2024, an investigation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon concluded that an Israeli tank targeted “clearly identifiable” journalists in violation of international law, according to Reuters’ review of the investigation, which has not been made public.
“Four additional investigations — by AFP, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Reuters — all independently arrived at the same conclusion: that Israel conducted a deliberate attack on the journalists. A deliberate attack on civilians constitutes a war crime under international law,” it added.
“No one has been charged or held responsible for any of these deaths, and the IDF has not disclosed whether it has opened an investigation into a single journalist killing,” it added.
Less than a week into the Israel-Gaza war, at 6:02 p.m. on October 13, 2023, the Israeli military fired two tank shells 37 seconds apart into south Lebanon. The military’s target? Seven journalists standing on a hilltop around a mile from the closest hostilities, wearing clearly marked “Press” vests and reporting next to a car marked “TV.”
The Israeli attack instantly killed Reuters’ Issam Abdallah, a veteran video journalist with extensive experience covering conflict in his native Lebanon, as well as in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine. Agence France-Presse (AFP) photojournalist Christina Assi, also from Lebanon, sustained injuries resulting in the amputation of her right leg. Five other journalists were also wounded: AFP’s Dylan Collins, from the United States; Al Jazeera’s Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Brakhya, also from Lebanon; and Reuters’ Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, from Iraq.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) announced several days ago that the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli occupation forces since the onset of the Israeli genocidal aggression against Gaza on October 7, 2023, rose to 167.
