A United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry should investigate the Israeli military's killing of the Lebanese journalist Issam Abdallah in October 2023, 11 nongovernmental groups including Human Rights Watch said in a joint letter dated September 13, 2024, to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
In December 2023, Human Rights Watch found that the two Israeli strikes that killed the Reuters journalist and injured six other journalists apparently constituted a deliberate attack on civilians and was thus a war crime.
"Given the continued impunity for the killing of Issam Abdullah, other journalists, and civilians, UN investigators should urgently examine this attack and publish their findings," said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The commission should identify those responsible to strengthen efforts to secure justice for the attack."
The UN Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry in 2021 with a mandate "to investigate, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since April 13, 2021." On October 10, the Commission of Inquiry announced that it is "collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides since October 7, 2023."
The organizations urged the commission to collect, analyze, and preserve information about the attack in Lebanon and publish its findings. The organizations urged the Commission to review the findings of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Agence France Press (AFP), and Reuters about the attack. The commission should send formal requests for information to the governments of Israel, Lebanon, and the United States, given that one of the survivors, Dylan Collins, is a US citizen, the groups said.
Investigating this attack would bolster efforts to end impunity for serious crimes committed against journalists since October 7, 2023, Human Rights Watch said. More than 100 media employees have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the start of the hostilities.
Multiple investigations found that the attacks on the journalists in southern Lebanon were launched from Israel. The injured journalists were Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Brakhya from Al Jazeera, Collins and Christina Assi from Agence France-Presse, and Thaer al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh from Reuters.
Israeli authorities claimed the strikes were in response to a Hezbollah attack and denied that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians, but the military has released no update or result from its internal investigation of the incident.
An investigation by the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) found that "its personnel did not record any exchange of fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon for more than 40 minutes" before the attack, Reuters reported. UNIFIL has not made its findings public. In its investigation, UNIFIL examined the legality of the attack, whereas a UN Commission of Inquiry has a mandate to collect, consolidate, and analyze evidence; identify those responsible; establish the facts and circumstances around the attack; and make recommendations on accountability measures, including for individual criminal and command responsibility.
