Lebanese journalist Christina Assi recounts the details of the attack on a journalist group on the Lebanese border near the occupied Palestinian territories, which resulted in the martyrdom of her colleague at Reuters, Issam Abdullah, and the injury of others, including her, who lost her leg.
The journalist, who is now in the hospital and needs a long treatment trip, said: “We were seven journalists from different agencies, including Reuters and Al Jazeera, and we were in an open area. We were all wearing helmets and jackets and were just doing our work and covering the clashes.”
She continued, “We were keeping a safe distance from the front line, so we were safe and we felt safe.”
Christina confirmed in an interview with the American CNN network, “There was neither Hamas nor Hezbollah around us. There was no one. We were just a group of journalists doing our work.”
She pointed out that the Israeli army attacked them “twice, not once, which led to the amputation of her leg, and now I must stay in the hospital for a long time until I recover a little,” according to her speech.
A Reuters investigation concluded that an Israeli army tank killed an agency journalist and wounded six journalists in Lebanon on October 13 by firing two shells in quick succession from inside the occupied territories, while the journalists were filming a cross-border bombing.
The two strikes led to the martyrdom of journalist Issam Abdullah (37 years old) from Reuters, and the serious wounding of Agence France-Presse photographer Christina Assi (28 years old) one kilometer from the Lebanese border with occupied Palestine near the village of Alma Al-Shaab.
Reuters spoke with more than 30 government and security officials, military experts and forensic investigators, as well as lawyers, medics and witnesses to come up with a detailed account of the incident.
Reuters reviewed hours of video footage from eight media outlets that were in the area at the time and hundreds of photos taken before and after the attack, including high-resolution satellite images.
As part of its investigation, Reuters also collected and obtained evidence from the scene, including shrapnel on the ground, others in Reuters’ car, three bullet-proof vests, a camera, a tripod, and a large piece of metal.
The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), an independent research institution that tests and analyzes munitions and weapons for clients such as the Dutch Ministry of Defence, examined the materials for Reuters at its laboratories in The Hague.
In addition, the main findings of the Dutch organization were that the large piece of metal was part of the tail of a 120-millimeter tank shell and was fired by a tank gun stationed 1.34 kilometers from the reporters across the Lebanese border.
Reuters presented the Israeli army with its findings that the two tank shells were fired from inside Israel and asked additional detailed questions, including whether the Israeli forces were aware that they were shooting at journalists.
At least 73 journalists have been martyred since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7, the largest toll of journalist casualties in 30 years, the majority of whom are Palestinians and Lebanese.
2023-12-09 19:34:29
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