Israeli tank in ‘most likely situation’ fired gatling gun at press reporters after lethal shelling, report discovers

An Israeli tank team eliminated a Reuters press reporter in Lebanon in October by shooting 2 shells at a plainly recognized group of reporters and after that “likely” opened fire on them with a heavy device weapon in an attack that lasted 1 minute and 45 seconds, according to a report into the event released on Thursday.

The report by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, or TNO– which was contracted by Reuters to evaluate proof from theOct 13 attack that eliminated visuals reporter Issam Abdallah– discovered that a tank 1.34 km away in Israel fired 2 120 mm rounds at the press reporters.

The very first shell eliminated Abdallah, 37, and badly injured Agence France-Presse, or AFP, professional photographer Christina Assi, 28.

A Reuters examination in December covered TNO’s initial finding that a tank in Israel had actually fired at the reporters. In its last report on Thursday, the institute exposed that audio got by an Al Jazeera camera at the scene revealed the press reporters likewise came under fire from 0.50 quality rounds of the type utilized by the Browning device weapons that can be installed 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 stated. “The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of (the machine gun) fire could not be established.”

Reuters might not individually figure out if the Israeli tank team understood it was shooting on reporters, nor whether it likewise contended them with a device weapon and, if so, why.

Neither of the 2 making it through Reuters press reporters or another AFP reporter at the scene kept in mind the device weapon fire. All stated they remained in shock at the time.

In action to Reuters concerns about the TNO report, the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, stated it reacted to attacks from Lebanese militants Hezbollah onOct 13 near Hanita with weapons and tank fire to eliminate the risk, and consequently got a report that reporters had actually been hurt.

“This incident will continue to be examined by the General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which is an independent, expert body, responsible for examining exceptional events that take place during war,” it stated in a declaration.

“The IDF 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 IDF stated.

International humanitarian law bars attacks on reporters as those in the news media have the complete scope of security approved to civilians and can not be thought about 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 stated.

AFP Global News Director Phil Chetwynd repeated his require an extensive and transparent examination by the Israeli military.

“If reports of sustained machine gun fire are confirmed, this would add more weight to the theory this was a targeted and deliberate attack,” he stated.

Ihtisham Hibatullah, Al Jazeera’s supervisor of worldwide interactions, prompted the Israeli federal government to reveal the findings of its own examination.

“This incident strongly indicates intentional targeting, as confirmed by investigations, including by TNO,” he stated.

Lebanon’s Minister of Information did not react to an ask for remark.

To checked out the 70- page TNO report, which describes how the independent research study institute in The Hague triangulated the shooting point of the tank rounds and evaluated the audio of the device weapon fire, click here.

TNO kept in mind that the 7 reporters were using blue flak coats and helmets, many with “PRESS” composed on them in white letters. They had actually been shooting cross-border shelling from a range in an open location on a hill near the Lebanese town of Alma al-Chaab for almost an hour before the attack.

Video video footage of the consequences of the attack likewise revealed a black cars and truck coming from Reuters significant “TV” in big yellow letters constructed out of tape on both the hood and the roofing.

TNO stated there was a clear line of vision from where the tank rounds were fired to the scene of the attack. In the live television feeds ahead of the attack, several drones can be heard and an Israeli helicopter was likewise noticeable overhead in some video footage.

The institute had the ability to figure out precisely where the 2 tank rounds originated from due to the fact that it had video of the 2nd round’s muzzle blast and flight, in addition to audio files tape-recorded at the scene of the event.

TNO’s analysis of the device weapon fire revealed that the “only reasonable match” was for a 0.50 quality weapon fired from 1.34 km away– the exact same range as the tank rounds– however the audio recordings were not adequate to figure out the shooting point.

However, the reality the bursts of bullets came so rapidly after the tank rounds, combined with the analysis, led TNO to conclude it was “likely” they originated from the exact same location. The independent institute did not provide any other situation for the origin of the device weapon fire.

About 30 seconds after the 2nd tank round, there was a burst of some 25 shots from a device weapon, followed by bursts of 9 and 12 shots. Just over 30 seconds later on, there were 3 shots, then a single shot and a metal ping, which might have been the bullet striking a low wall near the electronic camera, TNO stated.

Reuters professional photographer Thaier Al-Sudani, 47 cameraman Maher Nazeh, 53, along with 2 reporters from Al Jazeera and another from AFP were likewise injured in the attack.

Several of the professionals who examined the TNO report at the demand of Reuters revealed divergent views about whether the tank team had actually intentionally targeted reporters.

“The TNO report does conclude that it was likely, in addition to the two tank rounds, that machine gun fire came from the same location, and that adds to, or compounds the, deliberateness with which they seem to have been targeted, directly,” stated Jessica Dorsey, a professional in worldwide humanitarian law at Utrecht University.

“And I think that that, from a legal perspective, if this ever got to a courtroom, makes even more of a compelling argument that this was indeed a war crime,” she stated.

However, Nick Kaufman, a British-Israeli attorney who served in the IDF Military Advocate General’s Corps and has actually protected prominent customers versus war criminal offense charges at worldwide criminal tribunals, stated it was still uncertain why the tank had actually fired on the press reporters.

“On the basis of the TNO report alone, it’s not possible to conclude that this was intentional targeting of journalists as opposed to the pursuit of a legitimate military objective which went awry,” he stated. “One would need to have a full inquiry and understand the military intelligence which underlay the deployment of the two rounds.”

The day after the attack, Israel’s armed force stated it had visuals of the event and it was being examined. No outcomes have actually been revealed.