US vetoes UN resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire: Live updates

A journalist with Agence-France Presse who survived Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon in October told CNN it was “hard not to see it as a deliberate strike.” 

Forensic analysis by CNN suggests that Israeli tank fire killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six other international journalists in a double strike on October 13, confirming reports by two news organizations and two human rights groups. 

AFP and Human Rights Watch claim in their reports that the strike was a “deliberate,” targeted attack by Israel on the journalists.

In a statement to Reuters, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Richard Hecht said: “We don’t target journalists.” On Friday, the IDF said the incident is still “under review.”

Hecht on October 14 called Abdallah’s death “a tragic thing,” without naming him directly or acknowledging Israel’s involvement. 

Dylan Collins, who is the Lebanon/Syria video coordinator for AFP, told CNN’s Bianna Golodryga that those impacted by the incident have been grappling since with “grief and exhaustion.”  

Collins recounted what started as a “pretty quiet day,” describing how teams of Reuters and AFP journalists moved toward a plume of smoke after hearing “loud bangs” along the Lebanon-Israel border. 

“It seemed like kind of the perfect place to start working you know. We’re exposed to multiple Israeli positions along the border. Everyone was wearing flak jackets, helmets with press written across our chests. We had three live feeds to three international news agencies,” Collins recounted. 
“The Israelis had drones in the air the entire time. And I imagine you know with their state of the art surveillance capabilities, they could see our faces, they probably knew which channels we were working for… At around 6:02 that evening, we were struck directly… 37 seconds later, we were struck again at the same exact spot almost,” Collins added. 

Collins said that although he couldn’t speak on behalf of Human Rights Watch, he could recount what he had witnessed. 

“It was two strikes 37 seconds apart, almost in the same exact location on a group of journalists, seven journalists all wearing press vests and helmets.” 
“You could say maybe if there was one strike you could say it’s a mistake, or by accident, they didn’t mean to. But if it’s two strikes back to back in the same exact spot, it’s kind of hard not to see it as a deliberate strike,” Collins added. 

Collins reiterated how all the investigations “pointed to a thin stabilized 120-millimeter tank round that killed Issam Abdallah,” adding that…