Multiple investigations into the attack found that the Israeli occupation forces knowingly targeted the press members.

Agence France-Presse photographer, Christina Assi, who survived an Israeli attack that targeted a press crew in Lebanon last October, will carry the Olympic Flame in Vincennes, France, on Sunday in honour of journalists killed on duty.

“Carrying the Olympic Flame is an emotional experience, particularly after surviving a targeted attack while I was on assignment. My story is just one among many others in a year that has claimed the lives of over a hundred journalists,” Assi said on Wednesday in a memo she shared on her Instagram story.

“By bearing this torch, we honour the sacrifice of those who have fallen and draw attention to the urgent need to protect those who continue to report despite the mental and physical toll,” the 29-year-old photographer noted.

Assi was part of a seven-member press crew that were targeted by Israel on October 13, 2023, while covering the cross-border attacks in Alma Al-Chaab, southern Lebanon. Al Jazeera’s Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Barkhia were among the press members on site.

The Israeli attack killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and Assi later required a leg amputation, while the other press members sustained injuries. Assi’s colleague, Dylan Collins, who was also injured during the attack, will be joining her at the ceremony.

“It is an honour to carry the Olympic Flame alongside my colleague Christina Assi, nearly a year after we were targeted by the Israeli army at the Lebanese border. It’s a miracle that we are still alive,” Collins said.

“We are carrying the Flame to pay tribute to all the friends and colleagues we have lost this past year, to all the journalists killed or wounded while simply doing their job,” he added.

Pierre Galy, AFP’s Head of Sport, noted that having Assi carry the Olympic Flame would send “a powerful message for her and for all journalists affected in the line of duty.”

“When AFP was asked to carry the Olympic Flame, we thought of Christina, whose courage and tenacity are admired by everyone at the Agency,” Galy said.

A deliberate targeting

In a statement released at the time of the attack, Al Jazeera confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces had fired “a guided missile” at its crew as yet another attempt “to silence the media”.

This was proven on December 7, when an Amnesty International investigation into the attack found that the Israeli occupation forces knowingly targeted the press members.

The human rights organisation made the conclusion after verifying over 100 videos and photographs, analysing weapons’ fragments from the site, and interviewing nine witnesses from the time of the attack.

The investigation had found that the Israeli airstrikes were 37 seconds apart from each other and the journalists were clearly identified as press. The investigation noted that there was no presence of military activity in the place the journalists were attacked, making it a deliberate targeting.

The findings echoed an earlier separate Reporters Without Borders (RSF) investigation on October 29, which also found Israel deliberately targeted the press crew.

The first strike had killed Abdallah and severely wounded Assi while the second blew up Al Jazeera’s press vehicle, a white Toyota, RSF said. 

Al Jazeera’s Joukhadar had told RSF that an Israeli helicopter was already hovering over the area and could clearly spot the press crew long before the bombing. 

The Qatar-based broadcaster’s crew were previously targeted on October 9, five days ahead of the incident, while covering a similar attack in the Lebanese village of Dhayra in the south.

Weeks after the attack, another Israeli airstrike on November 21 killed Al Mayadeen’s correspondent, Farah Omar, alongside cameraman, Rabih Me’mari, in Tayr Harfa, South Lebanon.

Such attacks fall under a wider pattern of Israel’s targeting of journalists covering its ongoing crimes, particularly against Palestinians amid its genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 160 journalists in the Gaza Strip, according to the latest figures by the Palestinian Information Centre. The journalists are among 38,794 Palestinians, mainly women and children, killed by Israel over the past nine months.

Targeting of Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera has also been among Israel’s primary targets, especially following the war in the Gaza Strip, targeting its staff and their families.

On October 19, Israel killed 19 family members of Al Jazeera Arabic’s broadcast engineer, Mohamed Abu Al-Qumsan, during a massacre at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

This followed another deadly Israeli attack on the same refugee camp on December 6, where 22 family members of Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Moamen Al Sharafi were killed, including his elderly parents.

Less than a week later, Israeli forces killed the father of Al Jazeera’s Anas Al-Sharif in a strike in northern Gaza, two weeks after occupation forces threatened to target the correspondent.

On October 25, 2023, Israel killed four members of prominent Al Jazeera journalist and Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh’s family.

Israel killed Dahdouh’s wife, 15-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter and infant grandson in an airstrike in the south, despite Israel announcing the area to be a safe zone before the attack. 

Dahdouh, now in Doha, then survived a missile strike on December 15 in Khan Younis, where Al Jazeera’s cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, succumbed to his injuries after being left to bleed for six hours. 

Israeli forces prevented medics from reaching him with nonstop shelling and a delay in requiring the ambulances to receive prior approval in order to reach Abu Daqqa.

Israel then killed Dahdouh’s eldest son, Hamza, on January 7 in a direct missile strike that targeted a car with journalists in Khan Younis.

Israel’s military was quick to justify the attack by claiming that it “identified and struck a terrorist,” though a probe by The Washington Post on March 19 dismissed Israel’s allegations.

On February 13, Israeli occupation forces targeted Al Jazeera’s correspondent Ismail Abu Omar and cameraman Ahmed Mattar with an air strike in northern Rafah. Abu Omar is currently in Doha for treatment after his leg was amputated.

The following month, on March 18, Israeli forces detained and beat up Al Jazeera’s correspondent Ismail Alghoul during the deadly raid on the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Alghoul managed to escape after 12 hours.

Seeking to censor the Qatar-based network outside of Gaza, the Israeli government unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s local bureau on May 5. 

Al Jazeera had condemned the decision and described it as “a criminal act” that violated the right to access information. Walid Omary, Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau chief, said at the time that the network recorded more than 50 attacks aimed at its journalists since October 7.

Israel has long targeted Al Jazeera for its in-depth coverage of the crimes committed against Palestinians. 

In May 2022, Israel killed prominent Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as she was covering an Israeli raid in Jenin. An Israeli sniper shot and killed Abu Akleh, despite her wearing the blue protective vest marked as “press.”

Two years since the incident, Israel has not been held accountable for its crime, despite numerous investigations carried out that had found the Israeli occupation forces to be the sole perpetrators of the killing.