An Israeli army tank killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists in Lebanon while they were filming cross-border shelling on Oct. 13, a Reuters investigation has found.
Edit: here’s another link in case it doesn’t work. https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-LEBANON/JOURNALIST/akveabxrzvr/
Well that’s… Comprehensive.
There’s not really any conclusion other than the IDF just committed a blatant war crime and any response less than the immediate arrest of those soldiers and their leadership will be seen as approval for war crimes from the government.
Not like that’s stopped the Israeli government before now! The most they ever argue on the issue is that they should be allowed to get away with it because something something “Hamas and Hezbollah did it first!” something something “you owe us because Holocaust (don’t ask how we treat the actual Holocaust survivor families that live here)” something something “any criticism is antisemitism!”
The other thing is it now really calls into question previous deaths of journalists in this invasion. Deaths Israel was able to shrug off as a dangerous job in a dangerous area. That’s why Reuters went so hard on bringing the receipts. They wanted to leave nowhere for them to turn to this time.
Not really any other conclusion? What about the one where the tank that fired at them was too far away to see them clearly but acted without communicating with soldiers who were closer and aware that the journalists weren’t a threat? Apparently that’s less likely than deliberately causing a PR disaster somewhere where there wasn’t even anything controversial going on for the journalists to record.
When the story first broke the witnesses/journalists said that a couple of drones had hovered over them before they were hit.
Israel knew damn well they were journalists and didn’t give a shit … because the IDF actively hunts them down and murders them.
I think its not excusable even if it was mistake. You have to be very sure when you literally blow prople into red mist. Like 110% sure. Anything else is inexcusable.
It blows my mind how undisciplined and irresponsible the Israeli military is.
I get it tho. I have highly educated Israeli friends (military training is very mandatory) and they are very much brain washed into this “us or them deathmatch in a cage” sort of mentality.
To clarify I’m on team Israel as terrorists like Hamas deserve no sympathy only quick death but Israel has huge advantage in every conflict and you can definitely afford more diligence but there’s always this justification of “we have to do this” which dismisses any criticism.
Even before the current conflict when I’d point out how messed up Israeli tactics are of blowing up civilian walls in Palestine to make way for urban militia are people would just wave their hand and say “it’s just urban warfare” - it’s fucking not. No other place in the world does this. Do better.
I’m not on any team here. Hamas is awful. The Israeli military is awful. Civilians caught in the middle are the ones who deserve our support and sympathy.
There can be no peace with an us vs them mentality. All it does is engender the same mentality in your foes, and then everyone thinks any action they take is justified. Perhaps it is, but therein lies the issue. In taking justified action, they go too far and create justification for the other to now act.
They don’t have to like each other. They just need to leave each other alone. Enforce defense right up to where the border against Gaza is, and no further. And, vice versa. Continually push for a two state solution, no matter what happens. The power dynamic isn’t going to shift away from Israel’s favor, and as we’re seeing, taking directionless vengeance makes everything worse and solves nothing.
Man I haven’t fought in a war but this feels super naive
It is but that’s the minimum standard we should set in 2024 tbh
I can’t argue with you there
It’s not. You have to identify combatants
It’s less naive than you think. You’re supposed to positively identify targets before shooting at them. This means checking for uniforms, weapons, and/or hostile activity. Otherwise the prohibition on killing civilians and prisoners is meaningless.
‘Supposed to’ is the naive part
They were on an open hill top with little to no cover, standing around, for an hour. If they were a threat they would have been dealt with in seconds, not a fucking hour.
Also the Israelis are using optics on their tanks that makes 1km look like it’s just down the street. Hell I had those optics in the US Army 20 years ago.
Furthermore it wasn’t just the tank. It was a base which means if for some godforsaken reason that tank hasn’t had an optics update since 1970, then they could easily have called over someone with good optics. Hell we have cameras that can see several kilometers. The guy they got on the radio with likely sat in an air conditioned room looking at a TV screen.
Not to mention the drone that was flying over them