The Israeli tank crew that killed a Reuters journalist in Lebanon last October by shelling may have also opened fire on the clearly identified group of journalists, according to a report published Thursday.
The report by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) – which was contracted by Reuters to analyze evidence from the Oct. 13 attack that killed visuals journalist Issam Abdallah – found that a tank 1.34 km away in Israel fired two 120 millimeter rounds at 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 covered TNO's preliminary finding that a tank in Israel had fired at the journalists.
In its final report Thursday, the institute revealed that audio picked up by an Al Jazeera video camera at the scene showed the reporters also came under fire from 0.50 caliber rounds of the type used by the Browning machine guns that can 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 said.
"The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of (the machine gun) fire could not be established."
Reuters could not independently determine if the Israeli tank crew knew it was firing on journalists, nor whether it also shot at them with a machine gun and, if so, why.
Neither of the two surviving Reuters reporters or another AFP journalist at the scene remembered the machine gun fire. All said they were in shock at the time.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was working on a response to questions from Reuters about the incident. Asked to comment on TNO's preliminary findings in December, the IDF said: "We don't target journalists." A day after the Reuters investigation was published, it said the incident took place in an active combat zone.
International humanitarian law bars attacks on journalists as those in the news media have the full scope of protection granted to civilians and cannot be considered military 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 said.