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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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Trump Open to Meeting Iran’s Leaders, Sees Chance of Nuclear Deal
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump this week said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.
Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect US-Iranian talks last week in which the side agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal.
The Republican US president, speaking separately to reporters at the White House on Friday, reiterated his positive prognosis, saying: “Iran, I think, is going very well. We’ll see what happens.”
A US official said the discussions yielded “very good progress.”
Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an anti-Western hardliner who has the last say on all major state policies, or President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”
Expert-level talks are set to resume on Saturday in Oman, which has acted as intermediary between the longtime adversaries, with a third round of high-level nuclear discussions planned for the same day.
Israel, a close US ally and Iran’s major Middle East foe, has described the Islamic Republic’s escalating uranium enrichment program – a potential pathway to nuclear bombs – as an “existential threat.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying partial measures will not suffice to ensure Israel’s security.
Asked in the interview if he was concerned Netanyahu might drag the United States into a war with Iran, Trump said: “No.”
‘I’LL BE LEADING THE PACK’
However, when asked if the US would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: “I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
In March, Iran responded to a letter from Trump in which he urged it to negotiate a new deal by stating it would not engage in direct talks under maximum pressure and military threats but was open to indirect negotiations, as in the past.
Although the current talks have been indirect and mediated by Oman, US and Iranian officials did speak face-to-face briefly following the first round on April 12.
The last known face-to-face negotiations between the two countries took place under former US President Barack Obama during diplomacy that led to the 2015 nuclear accord.
Western powers accuse Iran of harboring a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.
Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly peaceful. The 2015 deal temporarily curbed its uranium enrichment activity in exchange for relief from international sanctions, but Iran resumed and accelerated enrichment after the Trump walkout in 2018.
The post Trump Open to Meeting Iran’s Leaders, Sees Chance of Nuclear Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say
US President Donald speaking in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC on March 3, 2025. Photo: Leah Millis via Reuters Connect
The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump‘s visit to the kingdom in May.
The offered package comes after the administration of former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. Reuters could not establish if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.
The White House and Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A US Defense official said: “Our defense relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump‘s leadership. Maintaining our security cooperation remains an important component of this partnership and we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia to address their defense needs.”
In his first term, Trump celebrated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as good for US jobs.
Lockheed Martin Corp could supply a range of advanced weapons systems including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources said. One source said Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.
RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which will include supplies from other major US defense contractors such as Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, said four of the sources.
All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
RTX, Northrop and General Atomics declined to comment. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Questions about sales to foreign governments are best addressed by the US government.
Reuters could not immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, two of the sources said. For example, the kingdom first requested information about General Atomics’ drones in 2018, they said. Over the past 12 months, a deal for $20 billion of General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian-style drones and other aircraft came into focus, according to one of the sources.
Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources said.
The US has long supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons. In 2017, Trump proposed approximately $110 billion of sales to the kingdom.
As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2021, under Biden, Congress imposed a ban on sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi killing and to pressure the kingdom to wind down its Yemen war, which had inflicted heavy civilian casualties.
Under US law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are finalized.
The Biden administration began to soften its stance on Saudi Arabia in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted global oil supplies. The ban on offensive weapons sales was lifted in 2024, as Washington worked more closely with Riyadh in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack to devise a plan for post-war Gaza.
A potential deal for Lockheed’s F-35 jets, which the kingdom has been reportedly interested in for years, is expected to be discussed, three of the sources said, while downplaying the chances for an F-35 deal being signed during the trip.
The United States guarantees that its close ally Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, giving it what is labeled a “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) over its neighbors.
Israel has now owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.
The post Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported, a day after the Netherlands called in Iran‘s envoy over suspicions that Iran was behind two assassination attempts.
An Iranian foreign ministry official described the Dutch accusation as “laughable” and based on “suspicions or assumptions,” according to IRNA.
“It is regrettable that the Dutch diplomatic apparatus acts so easily on speculations injected by its security bodies and the Zionist regime [Israel], and even summons the Iranian ambassador over such an absurd fabrication,” the official, Alireza Yousefi, was quoted as saying.
The Netherlands summoned Iran‘s ambassador after the Dutch intelligence agency, known as the AIVD, said in its annual report published on Thursday that it was likely Iran was behind two assassination attempts in the Netherlands and Spain.
Two men were arrested in June 2024 in the Dutch town of Haarlem after an assassination attempt on an Iranian residing in the country, the report said.
One of the suspects was also believed to have been behind the failed assassination attempt on Spanish politician and Iran critic Alejo Vidal-Quadras in Madrid in November 2023, it said.
The post Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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