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Israeli tank attack killed 'clearly identifiable' Reuters reporter: UN probe

Thursday, 14 March 2024 12:41 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 14 March 2024 12:41 AM ]

Late Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah

A United Nations investigation singles out the preventability of an October 13 Israeli attack on a group of journalists in southern Lebanon that led to the death of a Reuters reporter.

The attack consisted of two tank strikes that claimed the life of the agency's 37-year-old visuals journalist Issam Abdallah, and wounded six other journalists, including Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Christina Assi, 28, near the Lebanese village of Alma al-Chaab. Assi later had a leg amputated.

The investigation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) found out that the attack targeted "civilians, in this instance clearly identifiable journalists."

The attack, it said, "constitutes a violation of UNSCR 1701 and international law," the UNIFIL report said, referring to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 33-day-long Israeli military onslaught on the country in the summer of 2006.

The seven-page report dated February 27 said further, "It is assessed that there was no exchange of fire across the Blue Line at the time of the incident," referring to a temporary line that was drawn after the withdrawal of the Israeli regime from Lebanon during an earlier war in 2000.

120 individuals, groups urge UN to probe Israeli attacks on journalists in Lebanon

The appeal was addressed to UN rights chief Volker Turk.

"The reason for the strikes on the journalists is not known," the probe added.

At least 133 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7, when the Israeli regime launched a genocidal war against the Gaza Strip that has so far claimed the lives of 31,300 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents.