The Israeli tank crew that killed a Reuters journalist in Lebanon final October by shelling could have additionally opened hearth on the clearly recognized group of journalists, in response to a report revealed Thursday.
The report by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) – which was contracted by Reuters to investigate proof from the Oct. 13 assault that killed visuals journalist Issam Abdallah – discovered {that a} tank 1.34 km away in Israel fired two 120 millimeter rounds on the reporters for over one minute.
The first shell killed Abdallah, 37, and severely wounded Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Christina Assi, 28.
A Reuters investigation in December coated TNO’s preliminary discovering {that a} tank in Israel had fired on the journalists.
In its closing report Thursday, the institute revealed that audio picked up by an Al Jazeera video digicam on the scene confirmed the reporters additionally got here below hearth from 0.50 caliber rounds of the kind utilized by the Browning machine weapons that may be mounted on Israel’s Merkava tanks.
“It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists,” TNO’s report mentioned.
“The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of (the machine gun) fire could not be established.”
Reuters couldn’t independently decide if the Israeli tank crew knew it was firing on journalists, nor whether or not it additionally shot at them with a machine gun and, if that’s the case, why.
Neither of the 2 surviving Reuters reporters or one other AFP journalist on the scene remembered the machine gun hearth. All mentioned they had been in shock on the time.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) mentioned it was engaged on a response to questions from Reuters in regards to the incident. Asked to touch upon TNO’s preliminary findings in December, the IDF mentioned: “We don’t target journalists.” A day after the Reuters investigation was revealed, it mentioned the incident happened in an energetic fight zone.
International humanitarian legislation bars assaults on journalists as these within the news media have the total scope of safety granted to civilians and can’t be thought of army targets.
“We condemn, in the strongest terms, the attack on a clearly identifiable group of journalists, working in the open. The attack killed our colleague Issam Abdallah and injured several others. We reiterate our calls on Israel to explain how this could have happened and to hold those responsible to account,” Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni mentioned.
Source: www.dailysabah.com