‘Strong evidence of war crime’ in Israel’s killing of journalists

A year on from the October 13, 2023, double Israeli strike that killed Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six journalists, Israel continues to evade accountability for the targeted attack despite strong evidence of a war crime, finds a new report published Thursday, October 10, by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The Israeli attack instantly killed 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.

In a video published by CPJ on Thursday, Collins narrates the sequence of the attack against the backdrop of footage from the scene.

“The October 13 targeted attack that killed Issam Abdallah and injured six journalists clearly identifiable as press is a continuation of Israel’s decades-long pattern of targeting journalists with impunity,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “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.”

The October 13, 2023 attack was an early example of the Israeli military deliberately targeting journalists for their work after the outbreak of the war on October 7. Since then, CPJ has found that four other journalists, all Palestinians, were deliberately targeted by Israel for their reporting in Gaza. They are: Hamza Al Dahdouh, Mustafa Thuraya, Ismail Al Ghoul, and Rami Al Refee. CPJ is investigating at least 10 other cases of suspected targeting.

The total number of targeted journalists is likely an undercount amid myriad challenges of documenting a war that has killed at least 128 journalists, 126 of them by Israeli fire.

Read the report, and learn about CPJ’s efforts in defending and assisting journalists in Gaza since the outbreak of the war.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)