Lebanon says Israel launched strike that killed, wounded journalists

AFP | Beirut

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Lebanon said yesterday that Israel was behind cross-border fire that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six others near the border the previous day.

Israel’s military said it was looking into the circumstances of the fatal strike Friday which also injured journalists from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera.

“We are very sorry for the journalist’s death,” military spokesman Richard Hecht told a briefing in reference to the Reuters video journalist killed, Issam Abdallah.

On the question of who launched the strike, Hecht said that “we are looking into it”.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that “the Israeli enemy fired a rocket shell that hit a civilian car belonging to a media team, leading to the death of Issam Abdallah”.

Lebanon’s foreign ministry also blamed Israel and labelled the strike a “deliberate killing” and a “crime against freedom of speech and journalism”.

Reuters quoted Fatima Kanso, Abdallah’s mother, as saying “Israel deliberately killed my son.

They were all wearing journalists’ gear and the word ‘press’ was visible. Israel cannot deny this crime.”

The border has been rocked by violence since Hamas killed over 1,300 people in its October 7 attack on Israel, sparking retaliatory bombing of Gaza that has killed over 2,200 people there.

Israel has massed forces and tanks along the northern border with Lebanon, a country with which it remains technically at war, and where the Iran-backed Hezbollah has a heavy presence.

The group of journalists from different media, wearing protective vests and helmets, was near the village of Alma alShaab, close to the border with Israel, when they came under “direct” fire, according to two eyewitnesses.

‘Two direct strikes’

AFP photographer Christina Assi and AFP video journalist Dylan Collins were among the six journalists wounded.

Collins said there had been no outgoing fire from their location prior to the strike launched from the Israeli side of the border.

“We were filming smoke billowing from Israeli artillery fire targeting a distant hill in front of us,” Collins said.

“There was no military activity in our direct vicinity and no artillery fire near us.”

The journalists were standing in an open area when they heard small arms fire from a different direction further west, along the border with Israel, according to Collins, who spoke from the hospital.

“When we turned our cameras to look closer, we were hit directly by what seemed to be a rocket strike from the Israeli side,” Collins said.

Shortly after, he said, “we were hit again, directly, in the same place and from the same area. Two direct strikes on the same area.”

Al Jazeera accused Israel of carrying out the strike, and Reuters said journalists were struck by “missiles fired from the direction of Israel,” citing one of its reporters at the scene.