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Reuters Report on Killing of Journalist in Lebanon Tells Only Half the Story
Members of Hezbollah carry the coffin of Hezbollah member Abbas Shuman, who was killed in southern Lebanon amidst tension between Israel and Hezbollah, during his funeral in Baalbek, Lebanon, Oct. 23, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
In journalism, every story must answer five fundamental questions known as the 5 W’s: “Who,” “What,” “When,” “Where,” and “Why” — with “How” usually added as number 6. These are the basic pillars that help build a reliable and coherent picture of reality.
Yet Reuters’ impressive investigative report into the killing of the agency’s journalist, Issam Abdallah, in south Lebanon last October focuses heavily on all these questions except for the “Why.” Thus, it omits crucial context from what is undoubtedly a tragic incident and frames the death as a deliberate Israeli action against reporters.
Forensic Expertise
Abdallah was killed while covering cross-border fire near the Israel-Lebanon border on October 13, several days after Lebanese terror group Hezbollah started launching rockets at Israel in solidarity with the deadly Hamas attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
According to the IDF, which has repeatedly said that it does not deliberately target journalists, the incident has been under review since then.
But Abdallah’s colleagues, led by Reuters bureau chief for Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, Maya Gebeily, didn’t wait for any review. They apparently decided they were knowledgeable enough to collect all relevant forensic evidence from the scene in order to find the culprit.
Indeed, it is legitimate to cast doubt on these journalists’ forensic expertise (particularly if they had only 6-7 minutes to collect material from the site, as Gebeily later acknowledged), and on their objectivity as bereaved friends who had just lost their colleague. But it seems like they have made a serious effort.
They used every piece of shrapnel they could put their hands on, spoke to witnesses and experts, and even cross-referenced their data with audio recordings of the lethal strike caught on live television. All evidence was then transferred to a Dutch research organization for an independent analysis, Reuters said.
Omitting Hezbollah
Reuters’ investigative report from December 2023 covered the organization’s initial findings, and another report revealed its final results last week. In both cases, the conclusion was that Abdallah had been killed by Israeli tank fire.
While this may very well be true, it’s not the point.
The point is that amid all the painstaking details about the strike that killed Abdallah — the 120 mm rounds that came from “1.34 km away in Israel,” followed by “fire from 0.50 caliber rounds of the type used by the Browning machine guns that can be mounted on Israel’s Merkava tanks” — Reuters missed the forest for the trees, and minimized the reason Israel was firing across the border in the first place: Hezbollah.
In Reuters’ investigative report, detailed maps completely omit the terror group’s presence at the border area. They make it look like Israel was firing in a vacuum directly at the group of journalists that included Abdallah — and not, perhaps, towards Hezbollah rocket launchers.
Disturbingly, there is a caption that reads “hills” on the map, as if this is a more crucial detail to know rather than the presence of armed terrorists:
Shouldn’t such an investigative effort include some looking into Hezbollah’s positions around those hills?
This is particularly true because Reuters’ text does mention the IDF’s claim that there had been reports on a terrorist infiltration that day — so couldn’t Gebeily’s hard-working team make an effort to include some graphic expression of that on the map?
After all, a picture — or in this case a map — is worth a thousand words.
But words can also mislead, as they do in Reuters’ report on the Dutch organization’s final findings, which mentions Hezbollah only once — in the 8th paragraph, as part of the IDF response. It’s also mentioned only four times in the investigative piece.
For comparison sake, a Reuters special report on the killing of an agency’s photographer in Afghanistan in 2021 mentioned the Taliban 41 times.
And, unlike the report on Abdallah’s killing that ends with a condemnation from Reuters’ Editor-in-Chief and her call on Israel “to explain” what happened, the Afghanistan report does not include any condemnation nor a call to hold anyone responsible.
Again, it’s important to ask, “why?”
Why was Hezbollah omitted from the maps in Reuters’ investigative report and hardly mentioned in its coverage of the final findings?
Why was so much work invested in telling only half the story?
And why does Reuters seem to have different reporting standards when it comes to Israel?
HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Reuters Report on Killing of Journalist in Lebanon Tells Only Half the Story first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
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US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
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US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.