Lebanon: After deadly shelling of journalists, Israeli tank ‘probably’ fired machine gun, report says

by Maya Gebeily and Anthony Deutsch

BEIRUT/THE HAGUE (Reuters) – An Israeli tank crew killed a Reuters journalist in Lebanon in October by firing two shells at a clearly identified group of reporters and then “probably” opened fire with A machine gun was fired at them during an attack that lasted one minute and 45 seconds, it is written in a report published Thursday.

This report from the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), commissioned by Reuters to analyze the data available on this attack which cost the life of the journalist and image reporter Issam Abdallah on October 13, concludes that a tank located 1.34 km away in Israel fired two 120 mm shells against the journalists.

The first shell killed Issam Abdallah, aged 37, and seriously injured Christina Assi, a 28-year-old photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP).

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A Reuters investigation in December echoed TNO’s preliminary findings showing that a tank in Israel fired on the journalists. In its final report published Thursday, the independent Dutch organization reveals that sounds captured by an Al Djazira camera on site indicate that the journalists were also the target of fire with 0.50 caliber ammunition of the same type as those used by Browning machine guns, which can be mounted on Israeli Merkava tanks.

“It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two shells, also used its machine gun against the location where the journalists were,” TNO wrote in its report. “This last element cannot be concluded with certainty since the exact direction and distance of the (machine gun) fire could not be established.”

Reuters could not independently determine whether the Israeli tank crew knew it was firing at journalists, or whether it also opened fire with a machine gun, and, if so, why. would have pushed them to act in this way.

Neither the two Reuters journalists who survived this attack nor another AFP journalist remember machine gun fire. They all say they were in a state of shock.

REUTERS CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY OF RESPONSIBLE

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not respond to requests for comment on any aspect of the attack. Asked about TNO’s preliminary conclusions in December, they replied: “We do not target journalists.” The day after the publication of the Reuters investigation, they declared that the incident had occurred in an active combat zone.

International humanitarian law prohibits attacks against journalists, who enjoy the full protection guaranteed to civilians and cannot be considered military targets.

“We condemn, in the strongest terms, this attack against a clearly identifiable group of journalists, working in an open location. This attack killed our colleague Issam Abdallah and injured several others. We reiterate our calls to Israel to “He explains how this could have happened and to hold those responsible to account,” said Alessandra Galloni, editor-in-chief of Reuters.

AFP news director Phil Chetwynd renewed his call for a thorough and transparent investigation by the Israeli military.

“If reports of sustained machine gun fire are confirmed, it would add weight to the theory that this was a targeted and deliberate attack,” he said.

Ihtisham Hibatullah, head of international communications at Al Jazeera, urged the Israeli government to make the findings of its own investigation public.

“This incident strongly points to intentional targeting, as confirmed by investigations, notably that of TNO,” he said.

Lebanon’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

To read TNO’s 70-page report, click here.

“PRESS” REGISTRATION

The Dutch organization points out that the seven journalists wore bulletproof vests and helmets, most of them with the inscription “PRESS” in white letters. They had been remotely filming cross-border firefights from an open spot on a hill near the Lebanese village of Alma al Chaab for almost an hour when the attack occurred.

Footage shot shortly after the attack also showed a black Reuters car with the TV acronym written in large yellow letters using adhesive tape on the hood and roof.

TNO says the view was perfectly clear from where the tank shells were fired to the hill where the group of journalists were located. In the images transmitted live before the attack, one or more drones can be heard while a helicopter is also visible in the sky in certain shots.

The Dutch organization was able to determine exactly where the shells were fired from using footage showing the action of the cannon at the time of the second shot and the trajectory of the shell, combined with recorded sounds on the spot.

TNO’s analysis of the machine gun fire indicates that the “only possible match” is that of a 0.50 caliber weapon firing at a distance of 1.34 km, the same distance as the shell fire, but the sound recordings are not sufficiently conclusive regarding the position of the machine gun.

The very rapid sequence of shell and machine gun fire, combined with the analysis of the available elements, however, led TNO to conclude that they “probably” came from the same place. The organization does not offer any other scenarios for machine gun fire.

About thirty seconds after the second shell shot, we can hear the crackle of about 25 machine gun bullets, then nine and finally 12 more. Barely more than 30 seconds later, three shots ring out, then another and a metallic click, which could be that of a bullet hitting a small wall near the camera, writes TNO.

Reuters photographer Thaier Al-Sudani, aged 47, Reuters cameraman Maher Nazeh, aged 53, as well as two journalists from Al Djazira and another from AFP were also injured in the attack.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeilly in Beirut, Anthony Deutsch in The Hague and David Clarke in London, written by David Clarke, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Sophie Louet)