A United Nations rapporteur said an Israeli attack in South Lebanon on October 13, 2023, which killed a Reuters journalist and wounded several others, was a war crime.

Morris Tidball-Binz stated in a press conference in Beirut that the Israeli forces' attack on the journalists two years ago was a premeditated and targeted assault that employed a double-tap strategy, constituting, in his opinion, a clear violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

The attack killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six others, including AFP's Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, with the latter subsequently having her right leg amputated.

Journalists, an Israeli target

While the Israeli occupation military denied targeting reporters, Morris Tidball-Binz further noted that three other journalists were killed in a strike in October 2024 as they slept "in a clearly marked journalist residence... which could not have gone unnoticed by the Israeli Defence Forces, which shelled the place with bombs."

On Friday morning, "Israel" launched a deliberate airstrike with two missiles targeting the residence of journalists and press crews in Hasbayya, South Lebanon. Al Mayadeen's cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda, as well as Al Manar's cameraman Wissam Qassem were martyred in the Israeli aggression.

An investigation by AFP and the NGO Airwars concluded that the attack used a 120-mm tank shell used only by the Israeli army, while a UN investigation found no exchange of fire occurred at the time.

On November 21, 2023, Al Mayadeen's correspondent, Farah Omar, and cameraman, Rabih Me'mari, as well as their civil companion, Hussein Akil, were murdered in an Israeli airstrike on their location in Tayr Harfa, South Lebanon.

An Israeli warplane fired two rockets at Farah and Rabih's location.

They had just ended a live morning broadcast, giving updates on the latest Israeli bombardment in South Lebanon. She and her colleagues were targeted soon after they wrapped up their coverage and went off air.

1,100 women, children killed in Lebanon

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions also stated that more than 1,100 women and children were killed in Lebanon since October 8, 2023.

He expressed a grave disturbance at the scale, number, and gravity of Israeli attacks, including violations of international human rights law, which he said have amounted to thousands of people killed, and which continue today.

The ongoing attacks, which constitute violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, are also threatening the very fragile ceasefire, he stated.