2023-10-29 20:31:15
Archive – Burial of Reuters cameraman Isam Abdullah – Europa Press/Contact/Ali Hashisho – Archive
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MADRID, 29 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has assured that the investigation it has carried out into the death of Reuters cameraman Isam Abdullah in southern Lebanon reveals that the impact is the result of a “deliberate attack” coming from the Israeli border against a group of journalists from several international agencies.
“The group has been deliberately attacked. Two attacks in succession – just over 30 seconds – in the same place and in a very short space of time demonstrate this,” RSF reported in a statement about the presence of up to seven journalists from Reuters, AFP and Al Jazeera at the attacked location.
RSF recalls that the group of seven journalists had been in the same place for an hour, at the top of a hill, that they were clearly identified as press and equipped with vests and helmets, so it considers it “unlikely” that they could be confused with combatants. , “particularly because they weren’t hiding.”
A first projectile killed Abdullah and seriously injured AFP journalist Christina Assi. The second impact, which occurred just 37 seconds later, was more powerful and destroyed the Al Jazeera vehicle that had been identified with the word “PRESS” on the roof and injured several more journalists. The Toyota car was displaced 90 degrees from its initial position by the impact.
All this was recorded by another press team from the Lebanese television station LBCI that was recording about 100 meters from the place and the journalists from the first group, the one attacked, who also recorded an Apache helicopter – used by Israel – moments before the attack. bombing.
The ballistic analysis reveals that the two projectiles were launched from the same area, the area along the border with Israel. For all these reasons, he considers that the journalists were not “collateral victims” of the exchange of shots.
The Israeli Armed Forces immediately expressed that they “regretted” the incident and that they were “reviewing” what happened without further information being given at the moment.
A Lebanese journalist from the Al Jazeera network who was injured in the bombing, Carmen Yujada, was also attacked five days earlier. “This was not the first Israeli attack against us,” she recalled in statements to RSF.
“On October 7, there were me and Elie Brakhya, the cameraman and another colleague. We were recording everything that was happening in Dhayra, a town that was behind us. And suddenly an Apache also attacked behind us,” he added.
The journalists “were flown over by a reconnaissance helicopter just before a missile hit next to their press car of the same model and color as the one that was bombed on October 13,” RSF noted.
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