Issam Abdallah

Issam Abdallah (; 1986 – 13 October 2023) was a Lebanese video journalist working for Reuters who was killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank-fire in southern Lebanon on 13 October 2023, while reporting in the context of the Gaza war.

Life Abdallah began providing Reuters with footage in 2007, working as a freelancer while completing his university studies. Abdallah carried a video camera and a camera for still photographs wherever he went. He first provided footage of intra-Lebanese conflicts.

Death

On October 13, 2023, Issam Abdallah traveled as part of a group of three Reuters and two AFP journalists to a hilltop in Lebanon near Aalma ash-Shaab to film cross-border shelling by Israeli tanks. At the hilltop were already two journalists livestreaming the scene for Al Jazeera. All were wearing blue helmets and flak jackets, most of which were labeled "Press". Abdallah's group arrived at 5:16 pm local time.

For the next 45 minutes, they filmed without issue while being continuously surveilled by Israel drones. The journalists turned their camera towards an Israel outpost at Hanita. Forty-five seconds later, an Israeli Merkava IV tank located at another military installation 1.3 km from the hilltop fired a 120 mm high explosive, fin stabilized shell across the border directly at Issam Abdallah, killing him instantly and punching a hole in the low stone wall he had been leaning against. Thirty-seven seconds after the first shot, a tank fired a second shell from the same location, destroying the car of the Al Jazeera journalists and knocking their cameras to the ground.

The attack was captured by multiple audio and video recordings. Multiple investigations were conducted by groups including AFP, Reuters, and Amnesty International, all of which concurred that an Israeli tank had intentionally fired on the reporters, citing evidence at the scene including fragments of the tail of an Israeli shell. An Israeli spokesman declined to answer detailed questions about the strike, saying "We don't target journalists." Lebanon's army has said the IDF fired the missile that killed Abdallah. Another Reuters reporter at the scene said Abdallah was killed by projectiles fired from the direction of Israel.

Reactions Speaking about Abdallah's death, Israeli military spokesperson Richard Hecht said, "we're very sorry", but did not confirm that Israeli shells had hit the journalists.

Lebanon lodged a formal complaint with the UN Security Council over Abdallah's killing on its territory. According to state media. It is assumed in Lebanon that this was an intentional killing. Israel's representative to the United Nations stressed that Israel never wants to harm journalists, but in a war, "anything can happen."

Additionally, Agence France-Presse (AFP) called on Israeli and Lebanese authorities to "conduct a comprehensive investigation to determine the circumstances behind and responsibility for firing along their border that killed and wounded journalists on assignment..."

An open letter by Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders said the killing of Abdallah by Israel was "apparently deliberate".

Investigations RSF investigation

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) made a preliminary finding on 29 October that the deaths were the result of a "targeted" strike from the direction of the Israeli border, concluding that the "two strikes in the same place in such a short space of time (just over 30 seconds), from the same direction, clearly indicate precise targeting."

The investigation, which considered "eyewitness accounts, video footage and ballistics expertise", also concluded that it was "unlikely that the journalists were mistaken for combatants" given their situation out in the open, on top of a hill, wearing helmets and jackets marked with 'press'. The report "assessed that there was no exchange of fire across the Blue Line at the time of the incident", with no records of any exchange of fire across the border for the 40 minutes before the tank firing.