Lebanon is Exploring Legal Options to Seek Justice for Journalists Killed by Israeli Forces.

photo by Dylan_Agbagni on pixabay.com

On October 13th, 2023, an Israeli tank launched an attack on southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border. The attack killed a Reuters journalist, Issam Abdallah, and injured six other journalists from Al-Jazeera, Reuters and AFP. An investigation by the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) found that the attack was launched against “clearly identifiable journalists”, meaning it was a deliberate attack on civilians, and thus a war crime and a violation of the principle of distinction under humanitarian law. Since then, several NGOs and journalist organisations, including Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Journalists, have been urging the new Lebanese government to take meaningful action to seek justice for the attacks.

Against this backdrop, on October 9th, 2025 - two years later - Lebanon announced that it has tasked its Ministry of Justice with assessing viable legal options to start judicial proceedings and advance accountability for the deliberate attack carried out by Israel against the Lebanese journalist. This undertaking by Lebanon occurs in a context of still extreme vulnerability of reporters to attacks in the Israel-Gaza conflict. In fact, this was only the first in a string of incidents involving journalists in the course of the war. A preliminary investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that, as of October 2025, the number of journalists killed in the context of the Israel-Gaza conflict - not only in Gaza but also in Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and Israel itself - amounts to 240. Out of these, 237 were at the hands of Israel. Many of these killings were deliberate. CPJ also reports over 200 cases of journalists being injured, arrested or reported missing, as well as multiple threats, assaults and censorship.

NGOs and journalist organisations have welcomed the announcement by the Lebanese government, but urge it to pursue the matter further. The Lebanese government was also urged by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, who reiterated the identification of the attack as a war crime and called on the authorities to appropriately prosecute any conduct constituting international crimes.

To date, no legal proceedings have been pursued on the matter. Israel has taken no concrete steps to investigate the crime, despite declaring that the incident was under review. At the international level, no significant moves have yet been made to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the legal basis of the commitment of a war crime. Despite not being an ICC Member State, Lebanon could open up to legal pursuit of the matter by the ICC by presenting a declaration explicitly requesting that the ICC extend its jurisdiction to include such pursuit. The previous government had officially forwarded such a request, but it was later annulled and no further steps have yet been taken in that direction. With its most recent announcement, Lebanon sets the expectation that this might change in the near future.

Official Sources:

• Al Jazeera. (2025). NGOs welcome Lebanon’s push for justice over Israeli attack on journalists. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/14/ngos-welcome-lebanons-push-for-justice-over-israeli-attack-on-journalists 

• Arab News. (2025). Lebanon’s legal assessment for journalists killed by Israel offers ‘fresh opportunity for justice,’ rights group says. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2618760/media

• Committee to Protect Journalists. (2024). No justice for journalists targeted by Israel despite strong evidence of war crime. https://cpj.org/special-reports/no-justice-for-journalists-targeted-by-israel-despite-strong-evidence-of-war-crime/ 

• Committee to Protect Journalists. (2025). Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war. https://cpj.org/2023/10/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/ 

• Human Rights Watch. (2024). UN Report on Israeli Killing of Journalist in Lebanon. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/29/un-report-israeli-killing-journalist-lebanon 

• Human Rights Watch. (2025). Lebanon: Seek Justice for Journalists Killed by Israeli Forces. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/10/13/lebanon-seek-justice-for-journalists-killed-by-israeli-forces

• International Federation of Journalists. (2024). Lebanon: Nine journalists and media workers killed since the war started in Gaza. https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/article/lebanon-nine-journalists-and-media-workers-killed-since-the-war-started-in-gaza 

• Reporters Without Borders. (2025). Justice for Issam Abdallah: Lebanon moves to start legal proceedings two years after journalist killed by Israeli army. https://rsf.org/en/justice-issam-abdallah-lebanon-moves-start-legal-proceedings-two-years-after-journalist-killed 

written by Alessia Milillo