On\u00a0Thursday, Reuters, AFP, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released investigations into the circumstances of the\u00a0deadly strike. AFP and HRW claimed the strike was a \u201cdeliberate,\u201d targeted attack by Israel on the journalists. In a statement to Reuters, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Richard Hecht said: \u201cWe don\u2019t target journalists.\u201d He did not provide further comment, the news agency reported. <\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces on Friday said that the October incident in which a Reuters journalist was killed is still \u201cunder review.\u201d <\/p>\n
AFP photographer Christina Assi\u00a0had her leg amputated and\u00a0remains in the hospital as a result of the strike, according to AFP. <\/p>\n
Eylon Levy, a spokesperson for the Israeli government, said Thursday that he was \u201cnot familiar\u201d with the new reports. \u201cThe guiding principle in Israel\u2019s campaign against Hamas is we uphold the principles of international law regarding proportionality, necessity, distinction,\u201d he said. \u201cWe target Hamas, we do not target civilians.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel and Hezbollah were engaged in intense crossfire across the Lebanon-Israel border at the time. <\/p>\n
Neither\u00a0the\u00a0Lebanese army nor the Iran-backed Hezbollah are known to have such ammunition in their arsenal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe shooter should have seen the journalists from the tank,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
British weapons expert Chris Cobb-Smith said the photograph of the remnants of the shell clearly showed an\u00a0\u201cexpended tank round.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cTwo projectiles hit the area of the media crews and from the damage to the wall, the location where Issam\u2019s body ended up and from an analysis of the second crater, I believe the shots came from the area of the high ground just over the border,\u201d said Cobb-Smith, referring to a foot-high wall seen in aftermath video near Abdallah\u2019s body. Cobb-Smith said his analysis of the damage left by the projectile suggested that the attack came from a southeasterly direction. <\/p>\n
Maher determined that the attack was\u00a0likely\u00a0a \u201csupersonic event\u201d due to the absence of an \u201capproaching whoosh or whine, as you might see with artillery fire.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cobb-Smith\u2019s theory that the shells travelled from the southeast would be consistent of the findings of the investigations released Thursday. <\/p>\n
Israeli surveillance towers are seen in video of the attack, raising further doubt that Israel had not realized the tank crew was attacking journalists. <\/p>\n
In it\u2019s statement Friday, the IDF said, \u201cOn October 13, 2023, the terrorist organization Hezbollah launched an attack on multiple targets within Israeli territory along the Lebanese border,\u201d the IDF said in a statement. \u201cOne incident involved the firing of an anti-tank missile, which struck the border fence near the village Hanita.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the launch of the anti-tank missile, concerns arose over the potential infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory. In response, the IDF used artillery and tank fire to prevent the infiltration. The IDF is aware of the claim that journalists who were in the area were killed,\u201d the statement continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe area is an active combat zone, where active fire takes place and being in this area is dangerous.\u00a0The incident is currently under review,\u201d the IDF said. <\/p>\n
IDF spokesperson Richard Hecht on October 14 called Abdallah\u2019s death \u201ca tragic thing,\u201d\u00a0without naming him directly or acknowledging Israel\u2019s involvement.\u00a0The same day, the IDF said: \u201cA report was received that during the incident, journalists were injured in the area. The incident is under review.\u201d <\/p>\n
Al Jazeera has accused Israel\u2019s military of \u201cdeliberately targeting the journalists to silence the media,\u201d saying the attacks are a part of \u201ca pattern of \u2018repeated atrocities\u2019 against journalists.\u201d <\/p>\n
Amnesty International\u2019s investigation did not find \u201cany indication that there were any fighters or military objectives at the site of the strikes.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIsraeli forces had observation towers, ground elements, and air assets deployed to closely monitor the border. All of this should have provided sufficient information to Israeli forces that these were journalists and civilians and not a military target,\u201d Amnesty said\u00a0in its report. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur investigation into the incident uncovers chilling evidence pointing to an attack on a group of international journalists who were carrying out their work by reporting on hostilities. Direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks are absolutely prohibited by international humanitarian law and can amount to war crimes,\u201d said Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International\u2019s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe strikes were deliberate and targeted,\u201d AFP\u00a0said in its report.\u00a0AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd said in the report,\u00a0\u201cAFP has been very clear that we will take all judicial avenues that we deem relevant and possible to ensure that we can get justice for Christina and Issam.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking Thursday in Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Abdallah\u2019s death should be investigated. Blinken said it was his understanding that Israel had begun such an investigation and stressed the importance of seeing it through. <\/p>\n
A Pentagon spokeswoman said earlier that the agency had not conducted its own assessment of Abdallah\u2019s death but it continued to urge Israel to protect innocent civilians, including members of the press. <\/p>\n\n
On\u00a0Thursday, Reuters, AFP, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released investigations into the circumstances of the\u00a0deadly strike. AFP and HRW claimed the strike was a \u201cdeliberate,\u201d targeted attack by Israel on the journalists. In a statement to Reuters, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Richard Hecht said: \u201cWe don\u2019t target journalists.\u201d He did not provide further comment, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}