Funeral held for Reuters journalist killed in Lebanon while covering border clashes with Israel
The Israel Defence Forces released infrared footage on Friday showing what they say are the strikes on militants attempting to cross the Israel border from Lebanon. It was not clear which group the alleged militants belonged to.
On Friday, Hezbollah said its fighters fired several rockets at four Israeli positions along the border and the Israeli army said it had attacked Hezbollah targets with drone strikes.
“The Lebanese government bears responsibility for every attack launched from Lebanon towards our sovereignty. Anyone who tries to cross the border into our lands will be killed,” the Israeli military's Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in southern Lebanon on Friday evening, killing Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and injuring six other journalists. They were in the village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told The Associated Press Saturday, “We are aware of the incident with the Reuters journalist and we are looking into it.”
He did not confirm that the journalists had been hit by Israeli shells, but called the incident “tragic,” adding, “We're very sorry for his death.”
On Saturday Issam Abdallah was laid to rest in his hometown in a funeral procession attended by hundreds of people.
Draped in a Lebanese flag, Abdallah's body was carried on a stretcher through the streets of his southern town of Khiam, from his family's home to the local cemetery.
Dozens of journalists and Lebanese lawmakers attended the funeral.
Lebanon's Foreign Ministry asked Beirut's mission to the United Nations to file a complaint against Israel over Friday's shelling, calling it a “flagrant violation and a crime against freedom of opinion and press.” The statement was carried by the state-run National News Agency.
Reuters said in a statement that two of its journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were wounded in the same shelling while Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV, said its cameraman Elie Brakhya and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, were also wounded.
France's international news agency, Agence France-Presse, said two of its journalists were also wounded: photographer Christina Assi, and video journalist Dylan Collins.
AFP reported on Saturday that photographer Christina Assi was in need of blood donations at the American University Medical Center in Beirut where she was hospitalised.
The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing sporadic acts of violence since Saturday's surprise attack by the militant Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel.
International journalists are in Lebanon to report on the situation as tensions have been escalating between Hezbollah and Israel.
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