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Israel’s Ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka, has made extremely dangerous statements concerning journalists in Lebanon and Palestine, denying their journalistic status and placing their safety and security at risk.
Zarka made the remarks during an interview on Complément d’enquête, broadcasted on France 2 on Thursday evening (June 4th), where he acknowledged for the first time Israel’s responsibility for the attack on journalists near Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon on 13 October 2023.
His statements contained a series of distortions, misleading claims, and false allegations, which the Union of Journalists in Lebanon addresses below:
First, Zarka described the events of 13 October as a “mistake”, based on what he claimed was an “Israeli military investigation”. This statement constitutes Israel’s first acknowledgement of responsibility for the attack. His claim that an investigation was conducted also raises several questions: Why have its findings not been made public? Who was involved? Who issued the orders? What measures have been, or will be, taken against those responsible?
Second, Zarka claimed that the Israeli military was responding to an alleged attack by Hezbollah and that Israeli soldiers believed the journalists were Hezbollah fighters.
This claim is contradicted by the findings of independent investigations conducted by human rights organisations and media outlets.
It was evident that the group positioned on the hill near Alma al-Shaab at the time consisted of journalists. The Israeli military “knew or should have known” that they were civilians, yet attacked them regardless.
The attack originated from Israeli positions overlooking both the border and the location where the journalists had gathered.
The journalists could easily be seen and identified from the observation towers in the area. They were also detected and monitored by an Israeli drone and an Apache helicopter.
Several members of the group, working for Al Jazeera, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters, were broadcasting live at the time.
The evidence showed that there was no military activity near the journalists’ location and no indication of the presence of fighters or military targets at the site of the strikes.
According to a leaked report by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), no exchange of fire across the Israel–Lebanon border had been recorded for more than 40 minutes before an Israeli Merkava tank attacked the group of journalists.
Investigations also established that the attack involved two separate strikes, 37 seconds apart. A subsequent investigation conducted for Reuters by the independent Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) concluded that the Israeli tank later fired at the group with a heavy machine gun.
It is therefore reasonable to ask: if the attack was truly the result of a mistake, can the same mistake be repeated two or even three times?
Third, Zarka alleged that the Israeli military had found “dozens of press vests” in Hamas and Hezbollah tunnels, and claimed that “Hamas and Hezbollah use journalism and journalists as cover”.
This raises an obvious question: where is the evidence supporting these allegations?
The Israeli military frequently publishes footage of its forces entering tunnels, as well as images of the items it claims to have found inside them, to support its narrative. Is it not, therefore, remarkable that it allegedly discovered evidence supporting claims it has repeatedly made since 7 October 2023, yet failed to publish any of it?
The Israeli official also used this allegation to justify the purported “mistake” in the attack on the journalists in Alma al-Shaab. However, the crime took place on 13 October, only five days after 7 October, at a time when the Israeli military had not yet announced the discovery of any tunnels in either Gaza or Lebanon.
The Union of Journalists in Lebanon warns of the grave danger posed by the Israeli ambassador’s allegations against journalists in Lebanon and Gaza. These claims form part of a systematic Israeli policy that the Union has documented since 7 October: discrediting journalists and stripping them of their professional status to justify, either in advance or retrospectively, attacks against them by accusing them of belonging to groups fighting Israel.
This latest Israeli statement once again demonstrates Israel’s disregard for international law and for one of the most basic legal principles: the requirement to provide evidence. No evidence was presented to support these allegations, just as Israel has repeatedly failed to substantiate its previous accusations against journalists.
Israel continues to exploit its persistent impunity and the absence of international accountability for the killing of journalists.
Finally, even if we were to accept the ambassador’s claim that the attack on journalists on 13 October was a “mistake”, is it reasonable to believe that the same mistake has occurred 272 times in Lebanon and Gaza—the approximate number of journalists killed by Israel since 7 October?