This month marked not only two years since the October 7th massacre and the start of the Gaza war, but also two years since one of the most blatant cases of killing and injuring journalists by IDF forces. Despite the fact that in the two years that have passed, several independent and extensive investigations concluded that the attack on the journalists was deliberate, in response to an inquiry by The Seventh Eye, the IDF stated that they have not yet completed their investigation of the incident.

On October 13, 2023, an Israeli tank fired a shell at a group of journalists in Lebanon, near the border with Israel. About half a minute later, the group was hit by another explosion. As a result of the double strike, Issam Abdallah, a Reuters news agency journalist, was killed, and six other media personnel were injured, including Christina Assi, an AFP photographer, who was seriously wounded. As soon as the next day, the IDF expressed "deep regret" over the killing of the journalist and promised that the military was "examining the case."

Later that same week, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni called on the Israeli government to investigate Abdallah's killing in a manner that was "swift, exhaustive and transparent." This call has not been answered to this day.

Even before three weeks had passed, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) determined, based on an initial visual reconstruction of the incident, that the Reuters correspondent's vehicle was the explicit target of the attack, and not "collateral damage" from an exchange of fire with enemy forces.

In December 2023, Reuters itself reached a similar conclusion. A comprehensive investigation conducted by the agency's journalists into the circumstances of their colleague's death determined that an Israeli tank was responsible for the deadly incident.

Reuters' investigation was conducted in collaboration with the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), an independent research institute specializing in ammunition and weapons analysis, which examined the ammunition remnants collected from the scene and determined they were fired from a tank positioned in Israeli territory, approximately 1.34 km from the attack site.

Simultaneously, Amnesty International published the findings of a comprehensive investigation conducted by its personnel, ultimately concluding that there is suspicion the incident constitutes a war crime. The group of journalists, as determined after examining over 100 videos and photographs, was visible and clearly identifiable as journalists.

According to Amnesty, the journalists were visible to the observation towers and ground forces in the area. Conversely, no trace was found of fighters or armed individuals in the strike area. Amnesty's investigation indicates that the second strike on the group of journalists, about half a minute after the shell was fired, was most likely a guided missile strike.

"I was looking at Issam when we heard the [first] explosion," Amnesty quoted Al Jazeera cameraman Elie Brakhya. "I saw Issam’s body fly, with the glow and the heat behind his back… [I] ran up the hill, heard Christina shouting ‘I can’t feel my legs’, ran back to where she was, saw Dylan searching for the tourniquet."

Dylan Collins, an AFP journalist, told Amnesty about what happened from his perspective: "As soon as I turned around, I heard Christina’s voice saying, ‘Oh my God!’ I say, ‘You’re okay’. I ran to her directly and I see that her legs are blown off at the kneecap."

While he was trying to tie a tourniquet around his colleague's leg, the second explosion arrived. "When the second blast hit, I was stunned and dizzy, but in my blurry memory, I remember Issam’s leg falling in front of me, I remember looking up and seeing Carmen by the car, her face is black and she is walking like a zombie. Her entire back is covered in shrapnel.."

Carmen is Carmen Joukhadar, an Al Jazeera correspondent who was also injured in the incident. When she spoke with Amnesty, she said that after the second strike, she saw Brakhya on the ground and thought he was dead. "With a faint voice, I said ‘Elie?’ He replied: ‘Carmen, I’m in pain.’"

Amnesty also conducted audio analysis of videos filmed by Al Jazeera and Al Araby crews, which revealed that more than 40 minutes before the attack, a helicopter and likely also a drone hovered above the incident site, as part of a reconnaissance operation monitoring the activity in the area.

These investigations forced Israel to respond, and in December 2023, the IDF claimed that the journalists were in an "active combat zone." As for the case itself, it was claimed then that it was "still under investigation."

The UN also addressed the case, and in March 2024 published its findings, according to which the journalists were indeed visible and clearly identifiable as such, and therefore striking them violates international law. The investigation, conducted by UNIFIL, found that no exchange of fire was recorded in the area before the IDF's fire on the journalists.

On the first anniversary of Abdallah's killing and the injury of the other journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the lack of accountability. No one was brought to justice, no one was punished. The IDF Spokesperson told them then that the incident was still "under investigation." Another year passed and A United Nations rapporteur said that in light of its investigation, the attack constituted a war crime.

Now, two years after the deadly incident, The Seventh Eye approached the IDF Spokesperson with a question about the conclusions of the IDF investigation regarding the incident. In response, the IDF Spokesperson stated: "The incident is currently in the investigation stages, and the findings of the inquiry regarding the incident have not yet been concluded."

This article was published in Hebrew on October 23, 2025