Committee to Protect Journalists calls for pressure on Israel over attack 3 years ago in Lebanon

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the international community to pressure Israel to identify those responsible for an attack on journalists three years ago in Lebanon, which resulted in the death of photographer Issam Abdallah and injuries to six others.

On Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on the international community to pressure Israel to identify the military officials responsible for an attack on journalists three years ago in Lebanon and to impose sanctions on them. On October 13, 2023, Reuters photographer Issam Abdallah was killed and six other journalists were injured, including AFP journalists Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon. Assi spent five months in intensive care and had her leg amputated. An in-depth independent investigation by AFP and similar investigations by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders yielded identical results: two strikes targeted a group of journalists while they were working in an area experiencing near-daily clashes, and the first strike that killed Abdallah and seriously injured Assi was likely caused by a tank shell fired from Israel. The regional director of the Committee to Protect Journalists in the Middle East, Sherine al-Qaddah, said: "In the face of Israel's clear failure to hold accountable, we call on the international community to pressure Israeli officials to conduct an investigation to identify the units and individuals responsible for these deliberate attacks on journalists." She added that failing to punish those responsible would contribute to maintaining a form of "impunity," which "puts other journalists at risk."