Reporters decry lack of accountability on tank shelling in Lebanon that killed Reuters cameraman Issam Abdallah

Journalists alleged Wednesday that the Israeli government shelled their position at the Lebanese border in October 2023 and then failed to investigate the attack or hold anyone accountable for the death and injuries. The attack killed Reuters cameraman Issam Abdallah and wounded several others.

Israel has not taken responsibility nor been pressured to do so by the United States, its primary military and financial supporter.

“We hope we can spark a conversation that should have happened two years ago about the policy of the (Israeli Defense Forces) with respect to journalists,” said Bill McCarren, director of the Press Freedom Center at the National Press Club, which convened the panel discussion to draw attention to the incident.

McCarren noted that despite the lack of an official accounting from the government, multiple independent investigations have demonstrated that the killing was almost certainly the result of an Israeli tank crew stationed on the other side of the border that was watching the reporters on the hillside.

“We know who's doing the killing. These are people who are trained to kill. … There’s not a lot of mystery about what’s going on,” McCarren said. “I’m calling this a crime.”

Seven journalists from Reuters, AFP and al Jazeera had driven to a hillside in Lebanon on Oct. 13, 2023 to film video of shelling being exchanged between Israeli and Lebanese forces along the border. The journalists were wearing flak jackets and helmets emblazoned with ‘PRESS’ and their nearby vehicle had the same markings on the hood and roof; they set up three tripods on a wide open expanse and watched for military activity.

They all said that because they were highly visible, away from any direct military personnel and well marked that their position left them feeling relatively safe.

Reuters Beirut Bureau Chief Maya Gebeily, Abdallah's colleague, shared photographs of the hillside, the precise location on the border, the Israeli forces and their position. Gebeily also noted Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and other organizations investigated the shelling, yet the Israeli government has not released the results of any formal review of the killing.

“Despite overwhelming evidence…we see no accountability,” Gebeily said. “Despite repeated calls for the Israeli government to make its findings public we have not received anything."

Dylan Collins, a video journalist for AFP, said that an Israeli drone circled their position overhead 11 times. Then, according to Collins, at 6:02 pm, what appeared to be a tank shell from an Israeli Merkava tank struck their position, killing Abdallah and sending the journalists scrambling. About 37 seconds later, a second shell struck one of their vehicles, blasting it to pieces and igniting a fireball.

“We were struck twice,” Collins said, adding that four separate investigations of the attack concluded that the tank shells came from the Israeli tank 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) away, based on ballistics and shell fragments. He said he is dismayed that the United States government is “not interested in asking questions about their greatest ally in the Middle East.”

Elie Brakhya, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, said the event should be classified as a war crime because Israeli military forces machine gunned the group of journalists after the tank shells exploded.  “They were making sure we were dead,” Brakhya said.

The evening’s conversation was moderated by Jason Rezaian, a longtime reporter and editor for The Washington Post who last October was appointed director of press freedom initiatives for the paper. Rezaian was imprisoned by the Iranian government for 544 days, and later wrote a book about his experience.