Issam Abdallah: Complaint filed with UN Special Rapporteurs regarding ongoing lack of investigation, and denial of family’s rights to justice, truth and reparation
10 December 2025: On international human rights day, the family of Issam Abdallah, Lebanese journalist killed in southern Lebanon on 13 October 2023, has filed a complaint with the United Nations (“UN”) Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Professor Morris Tidball-Binz, and the UN Special Rapporteur on truth, justice and reparations, Professor Bernard Duhaime, regarding the ongoing failures by Israel and by Lebanon to conduct a thorough, independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his killing.
Tatyana Eatwell, Jennifer Robinson and Nikila Kaushik act on behalf of the family.
On the last day of his country visit to Lebanon, on 10 October 2025, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions condemned Mr Abdallah’s killing as a war crime, and called for an investigation into his, and every single death resulting from Israeli strikes in Lebanon. The Special Rapporteur urged third States and the international community as a whole “to do more and better on behalf of the victims, to ensure their right to truth, justice, and reparations.”
The complaint filed today addresses the ongoing failures by the Israeli and Lebanese authorities to investigate Mr Abdallah’s killing and raises serious concerns regarding the ongoing violation of Mr Abdallah’s family’s rights to dignity, information, justice, truth and reparation.
It has now been two years since Mr Abdallah was killed. In that period, no effective, independent and thorough investigation has been conducted by either the Lebanese or the Israeli authorities. Despite IDF spokesperson Lt Col Hecht’s assertion, on 14 October 2023, that the IDF “have visuals” and are “doing cross-examination”, Israel’s Military Advocate General (“MAG”) has failed to investigate Mr Abdallah’s case, or at the very least to comply with the two-month guideline for investigation identified in a 2018 report by Israel’s State Comptroller. No details about the progress of the investigation have been provided since 15 January 2025, when the MAG advised the family’s counsel that “the investigation into the incident is still ongoing, hence its findings have not yet been presented”.
The complaint sets out how investigative steps purportedly taken by Israel and by Lebanon fall far short of international standards, specifically, the requirement that an investigation must be (i) prompt; (ii) effective and thorough; (iii) independent and impartial; and (iv) transparent. The failure to investigate is made particularly serious by the prolonged delay: it has now been over two years since Mr Abdallah was killed and his family are left without answers.
Background
Issam Abdallah, a 37-year-old Reuters videographer and journalist, was killed on 13 October 2023 whilst reporting from southern Lebanon, near Alma al-Shaab, approximately 1.2km from the Blue Line – the demarcation line that divides Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights. At the time he was killed, he was reporting together with six other journalists, Thaeir Al Sudani and Maher Nazeh (also Reuters), Dylan Collins and Christina Assi (Agence-France Presse (“AFP”)) and Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Brakhia (Al Jazeera). All were clearly identifiable as “PRESS”, including with press vests and a sign on the roof of their vehicle visible from the sky.
Following drone surveillance by the Israeli military, the journalists were fired upon twice. The first tank shell killed Issam and seriously injured AFP correspondent Christina Assi who sustained life-altering injuries. The second, fired 37 seconds later, directly struck and destroyed the Al Jazeera journalists’ vehicle.
An investigation by UNIFIL, deployed to monitor the ceasefire along the Blue Line, summarised in a report published by Reuters, has concluded that the source of the fire that killed Issam was an Israeli Merkava tank, that there was no exchange of fire across the Blue Line or in the area before the strike against the journalists, that the attack constituted a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006) and international law.
Issam’s killing prompted widespread condemnation and alarm from specialist NGOs, including Reporters without Borders (“RSF”), the Committee to Protect Journalists (“CPJ”), Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, and calls for Issam’s killing to be investigated as a war crime.
To date, there has been no independent criminal investigation into Issam’s killing by the Israeli authorities or the Lebanese authorities. In response to Issam’s killing, IDF Spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said, “we already have visuals. We’re doing cross examination. It’s a tragic thing”. In the two years since that statement, the IDF has still not published any information about its inquiry and has refused to engage meaningfully with Issam’s family or legal representatives about his case.
A number of civil society organisations, including RSF, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (“TNO”), asked by Reuters to analyse evidence from the incident, and the news organisation AFP have conducted separate investigations into the circumstances of Issam’s killing. These investigations have all concluded, based on their analysis of the available evidence, including video and audio content recorded immediately before and at the time of the strike, eye-witness evidence, and ballistics, that Issam was killed by tank rounds fired at the group of journalists by an Israeli tank positioned in Israel near the Blue Line.
In July 2024, the family filed a submission and supporting information regarding the attack with the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (“COI”), urging the COI to investigate Issam’s killing, and to give specific focus in carrying out its mandate to crimes against journalists.
Tatyana Eatwell, Jennifer Robinson and Nikila Kaushik act as international counsel for Abeer Abdallah, sister of Issam Abdallah.
Please direct any press queries to t.eatwell@doughtystreet.co.uk
Photograph credit: Issam Abdallah
