A United Nations rapporteur on Friday said an Israeli attack on south Lebanon on October 13, 2023, that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded others, including two from AFP, was a war crime.
Morris Tidball-Binz, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, also told a press conference in Beirut more than 1,100 women and children were killed in Lebanon during more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
The attack on the journalists two years ago was “a premeditated, targeted and double-tapped attack from the Israeli forces, a clear violation, in my opinion, of IHL (international humanitarian law), a war crime”, Tidball-Binz said.
The attack killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six others including AFP’s Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated.
An AFP probe into the deadly attack, jointly conducted with Airwars, an NGO that investigates attacks on civilians in conflict situations, pointed to a 120-mm tank shell only used by the Israeli army.
A UN investigation found there was “no exchange of fire” before the attack.
The Israeli military has denied it targets reporters.
Morris Tidball-Binz noted that three other journalists were killed in a strike in October 2024 as they slept “in a clearly marked journalist residence… which could not have gone unnoticed by the Israeli Defence Forces, which shelled the place with bombs”.
The Israeli military had said it targeted Hezbollah militants and that the strike was “under review”.
A November ceasefire sought to halt the hostilities — which culminated in two months of open war last year — but Israel has kept up near daily attacks on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting sites or operatives from the Iran-backed militant group.
According to Lebanese authorities, more than 4,000 people have been killed since the exchange of fire began in October 2023, while the UN said last week said it had verified the deaths of 103 civilians since the ceasefire.
Tidball-Binz said he was “was gravely disturbed by the scale, number and gravity of Israeli attacks… including violations of international human rights law”.
He said they amounted to “thousands of people killed, including more than 1,100 women and children, and this continues today”.
Last month, Lebanon said five people including a father and three children were killed in an Israeli strike on the country’s south.
Tidball-Binz said that “in addition to the violations of IHL and international human rights law that these attacks amount to, they’re also threatening… the very fragile ceasefire”.
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© Agence France-Presse
