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On October 13, 2023, Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed Issam Abdullah, a Reuters journalist. The attack injured six other journalists from Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP),
and Al Jazeera.
SOUNDBITE: Dylan Collins AFP Journalist
I will always remember his, his wit and his humor. He was the dynamo of the press scene and of Reuters in general.
SOUNDBITE: Carmen Joukhadar Al Jazeera Journalist
I don’t think there is anyone that is funnier than Issam. I don’t think there’s anyone more supportive than Issam.
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Human Rights Watch investigated the attack to determine the cause, who carried it out and its legality.
SOUNDBITE: Dylan Collins AFP Journalist
I don't know what justice looks like. We lost someone and he’s not coming back. And Christina [injured AFP colleague], her life will never be the same. I don't know how you, I don't know how you replace that. For me, justice, the only type of justice that we can get now is accountability.
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Visual evidence suggests that Israeli forces targeted the journalists, who were filming at a known live position far from military targets. The attacks were likely deliberate and an apparent war crime.
SOUNDBITE: Dylan Collins AFP Journalist
We’re a group of seven journalists, all wearing press vests, all wearing helmets with cameras, with three live feeds for three international agencies. And we were hit twice directly in a matter of 37 seconds.
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The digital investigations team at Human Rights Watch verified 49 videos and dozens of photos from before, during and after the incident, analyzed satellite imagery of the area,
interviewed witnesses, and consulted with arms and audio experts. Among the visual evidence collated by Human Rights Watch is the feed from the cameras of the journalists who were there that day.
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Just before 5 p.m. on October 13th the seven journalists from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera congregated in Alma Al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, roughly one to two kilometers from the Israeli border.
SOUNDBITE: Carmen Joukhadar Al Jazeera Journalist
For us it was a good location because we were able to film the strikes without putting our lives at risk.
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They were there to report on clashes between the Israeli military and Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups in southern Lebanon.
SOUNDBITE: Dylan Collins AFP Journalist
When we arrived around 5 p.m. We were really only just filming this this huge pillar of smoke that was coming, rising up beyond a hill to our south, along the border. And maybe about 15 minutes later, we started to see incoming shelling from the Israeli side hitting the
the areas in Lebanon along the border. We were calm, collected, working as safe as you can in this kind of environment.
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Evidence reviewed by Human Rights Watch indicates that the Israeli military knew or should have known that the group of people they were firing on were civilians.
Around 5:54, Elie Brakhia, an Al Jazeera journalist, took a selfie with Issam Abdallah, the Reuters journalist, with the sun setting behind them. “Good evening,” Elie texted, in Arabic.
SOUNDBITE: Dylan Collins AFP Journalist
So around a little bit before 6 p.m., about one minute before we were hit, there was a what looked to be a tank fire fired from the “Hanita military base (in Israel),” fired across the valley
into a hilltop, basically maybe a kilometer and half away from us.
And I took out my phone to take a video of it. And basically, as soon as I took out my phone to take a video, I was going to inform our newsroom about the development. And as soon as I took out my phone, we were hit the first time. But basically big explosion.
The first one. I looked to my right and I saw my colleague Christina on the ground screaming,
saying, “I can't feel my legs.”
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Human Rights Watch has verified footage from four cameras that caught captured the first attack. The first strike directly hit and killed Issam Abdallah, who was near the short rock wall.
SOUNDBITE: Carmen Joukhadar Al Jazeera Journalist
I see a flame and soil and then I hear the sound. I see Christina and I see Issam. And then I run in the other direction. I go to the car, our car the Al Jazeera car. I sit next to it for a little bit. But then I told myself no, cars are targets. This is what they tell you in training. So as I was running to get away from it......another missile hit the car. And it exploded, all of it.
And this is what caused all the shrapnel in my back because I was running to get away.
SOUNDBITE: Dylan Collins AFP Journalist
Getting hit once or firing once could be a mistake. But there were two direct it was two direct shots at us. You can't say that's a mistake.
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Audio analysis, witness testimony and satellite images reviewed by Human Rights Watch suggests that at least one munition was fired from Israeli territory, approximately 1.5 kilometers to the southeast. Analysis of the video taken in the minutes before the attack further suggests that the group was targeted by the Israeli military.
Three cameras captured the same scene, but in each one light appears to be either static, blinking, or absent, depending on the camera. Experts said this could suggest the
use of infrared targeting or range-finding technology, suggesting the Israeli military was actively observing the journalists and proceeded to target them.
SOUNDBITE: Dylan Collins AFP Journalist
We lost a colleague. My colleague has, life altering injuries, and I want to know, I want to know who pulled the trigger.
SOUNDBITE: Carmen Joukhadar Al Jazeera Journalist
Today it was us. Tomorrow it will be someone else. Justice is that those who committed all these crimes are held accountable.
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Since Human Rights Watch began this investigation, two journalists, Rabih Al-Maamari and Farah Omar were reportedly killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese town of Tayr Harfa, some 2.3 kilometers from where Issam Abdullah was killed.
At least 61 journalists have been killed in the hostilities in Israel and Gaza, according to the Committee to Project Journalists. The committee said the first month of hostilities marked “the deadliest month for journalists” since they began documenting journalist fatalities in 1992.
Journalists are protected under international humanitarian law against direct attacks. Targeting journalists constitutes a breach of the Geneva Conventions.
Intentionally or indiscriminately attacking civilians is a war crime.
(Beirut) - A United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry should investigate the Israeli military’s killing of the Lebanese journalist Issam Abdallah in October 2023, 11 nongovernmental groups including Human Rights Watch said in a joint letter dated September 13, 2024, to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
In December 2023, Human Rights Watch found that the two Israeli strikes that killed the Reuters journalist and injured six other journalists apparently constituted a deliberate attack on civilians and was thus a war crime.
“Given the continued impunity for the killing of Issam Abdullah, other journalists, and civilians, UN investigators should urgently examine this attack and publish their findings,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The commission should identify those responsible to strengthen efforts to secure justice for the attack.”
The UN Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry in 2021 with a mandate “to investigate, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since April 13, 2021.” On October 10, the Commission of Inquiry announced that it is “collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides since October 7, 2023.”
The organizations urged the commission to collect, analyze, and preserve information about the attack in Lebanon and publish its findings. The organizations urged the Commission to review the findings of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Agence France Press (AFP), and Reuters about the attack. The commission should send formal requests for information to the governments of Israel, Lebanon, and the United States, given that one of the survivors, Dylan Collins, is a US citizen, the groups said.
Investigating this attack would bolster efforts to end impunity for serious crimes committed against journalists since October 7, 2023, Human Rights Watch said. More than 100 media employees have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the start of the hostilities.
Multiple investigations found that the attacks on the journalists in southern Lebanon were launched from Israel. The injured journalists were Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Brakhya from Al Jazeera, Collins and Christina Assi from Agence France-Presse, and Thaer al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh from Reuters.
Israeli authorities claimed the strikes were in response to a Hezbollah attack and denied that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians, but the military has released no update or result from its internal investigation of the incident.
An investigation by the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) found that “its personnel did not record any exchange of fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon for more than 40 minutes” before the attack, Reuters reported. UNIFIL has not made its findings public. In its investigation, UNIFIL examined the legality of the attack, whereas a UN Commission of Inquiry has a mandate to collect, consolidate, and analyze evidence; identify those responsible; establish the facts and circumstances around the attack; and make recommendations on accountability measures, including for individual criminal and command responsibility.
Witness accounts and video and photo evidence that Human Rights Watch verified indicate that the journalists were at a considerable distance from ongoing hostilities, clearly identifiable as members of the media, and had been stationary for at least 75 minutes before they were hit by two consecutive strikes. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target near the journalists’ location, nor did other rights and media groups.
Evidence reviewed by Human Rights Watch indicated that the Israeli military knew or should have known that the people they were firing on were civilians. Video evidence, expert audio analysis, and witness accounts suggest that the group was visible to the cameras of a nearby unmanned aerial vehicle that was most likely Israeli, within line of sight of five Israeli surveillance towers, and most likely targeted by at least one munition fired from the main gun of a tank from an Israeli military position approximately 1.5 kilometers southeast. The attack directly targeted the journalists with two consecutive strikes within 37 seconds.
Reuters found that the Israeli military most likely fired a machine gun at the journalists following the two deadly strikes. UNIFIL also reportedly concluded that the “firing at civilians, in this instance clearly identifiable journalists, constitutes a violation of [UN Security Council Resolution] 1701 (2006) and international law.”
Despite the findings of various organizations, there has been no justice for Abdallah’s killing, Human Rights Watch said. In April 2024, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers instructed the Foreign Affairs Ministry to file a declaration with the International Criminal Court (ICC) registrar accepting the court’s jurisdiction over serious crimes committed on Lebanese territory since October 7, 2023. However, the ministry never followed through, and the government eventually reversed its decision.
Accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction through a declaration would have given the court’s prosecutor a mandate to investigate serious crimes committed in Lebanon, including deliberate attacks on civilians and journalists, regardless of the nationality of the suspects.
On May 20, the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking arrest warrants against two senior Israeli officials and three Hamas leaders. Khan confirmed that his office has jurisdiction over crimes in the current hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups that covers unlawful conduct by all parties.
“A UN-mandated investigation into the killing of Issam Abdallah would be crucial to preserve evidence for any future accountability process in a court of law,” Kaiss said. “In the meantime, Lebanon’s government should reverse course and promptly give the ICC jurisdiction to enable the court’s prosecutor to investigate grave international crimes in Lebanon.”
