US lawmakers call for probe into Israeli strike that injured US journalist in Lebanon
October 2023 incident saw shellfire kill videographer Issam Abdallah and hurt 6 reporters, including American Dylan Collins; IDF said it was responding to Hezbollah missile fire
WASHINGTON — US lawmakers called Tuesday for an independent investigation into an Israeli attack in Lebanon last year that wounded Dylan Collins, an American citizen and journalist for the AFP news agency.
Collins and five others — including AFP’s Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated — were wounded and Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while they were reporting in southern Lebanon in October 2023.
The Israel Defense Forces said of the incident at the time that Hezbollah had attacked Israeli forces near Kibbutz Hanita on October 13, the troops responded with artillery and tank fire to remove the threat, and the military subsequently received a report that journalists had been injured.
“It has now been more than one year since Mr. Collins was injured in a targeted Israeli strike while on assignment for AFP. To date, Mr. Collins has received no explanation for the attack, and there have been no steps toward accountability,” the 12 lawmakers — 11 Democrats and an independent — wrote.
“Given the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the United States must open an independent investigation into this incident,” said the letter addressed to US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The evidence clearly indicates that this was an unlawful direct attack on civilians in which a US citizen was injured and was lucky to survive,” the lawmakers wrote, describing it as “part of a wider pattern of disregard by the Israeli military for the safety of civilians, including journalists and humanitarian aid workers.”
An investigation conducted by UNIFIL — the UN body that operates peacekeeping forces on the Israel-Lebanon border — said the journalists were “clearly identifiable.”
In response to the UNIFIL investigation, an IDF spokesperson said the military “deplores any injury to uninvolved parties, and does not deliberately shoot at civilians, including journalists. The IDF considers the freedom of the press to be of utmost importance while clarifying that being in a war zone is dangerous.”
The spokesperson added that the General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which is responsible for reviewing exceptional events, would continue to examine the incident.
According to the IDF’s website, the fact-finding team submits its reviews to the military’s legal affairs department, which decides whether a case warrants a criminal investigation.
Reporters Without Borders, a watchdog group advocating for press freedom, claimed Israel targeted the journalists intentionally.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 29 civilians. In addition, 45 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September. Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that more than 1,500 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon. Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.
