Israeli tank ’likely’ fired machine gun at journalists after deadly shelling

An Israeli tank crew killed a Reuters reporter in Lebanon in October by firing two shells at a clearly identified group of journalists and then ’likely’ opened fire on them with a heavy machine gun, according to a report into the incident published on Thursday. The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) was contracted by Reuters to investigate the circumstances in which journalist Issam Abdallah was killed on 13 October last year. The report said that the first shell killed Abdullah and severely wounded the Agence France-Presse photographer Christina Assi. The TNO report said it was considered a ’likely scenario’ that the crew also opened fire on the journalists with a heavy machine gun. Reuters said Israeli forces had declined to comment on the findings. Middle East crisis – latest updates