At least one journalist has been killed and six wounded — including two Al Jazeera journalists — in shelling by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, according to witnesses.
Reuters news agency confirmed on Friday that videographer Issam Abdallah was killed in the attack.
“We are urgently seeking more information, working with regional authorities and supporting Issam’s family and colleagues,” Reuters said in a statement. Two other Reuters journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were injured, the statement said.
Al Jazeera said cameraman Elie Brakhia and journalist Carmen Joukhadar were also injured.
“The shells of the depot hit them directly. It was awesome. The situation there was: I can’t explain it, I can’t describe it,” Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem reported from Alma al-Shaab, Lebanon, noting that the group of journalists was clearly marked as press.
The Israeli army targeted a group of journalists including the Al Jazeera crew, one colleague from another agency was killed and two of our Al Jazeera colleagues were injured, along with several others.
– Ali Hashem Ali Hashem (@alihashem_tv) October 13, 2023
Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement that Israeli forces “again tried to silence the media by targeting journalists,” this time with a missile fired at a clearly marked Al Jazeera team and other journalists in southern Lebanon.
“Israel’s targeting of the Al Jazeera team is a clear violation of international security standards that clearly discriminate against the press, as an Al Jazeera broadcast vehicle was bombed and burned despite our crew being in an agreed location with other international media,” the network said. .
“Al Jazeera strongly condemns these repeated atrocities that previously led to the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh,” the network said, referring to the shooting of the popular Palestinian-American journalist by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp. He occupied the West Bank in 2022.
The network sent its “sincere and heartfelt condolences” to the family of the deceased and wished the injured a speedy recovery.
According to the news agency Agence France-Presse, two of the local journalists were also among the injured.
AFP reported, citing a Lebanese security source, that the bombings followed an attempt by a Palestinian faction to infiltrate the Israeli border from southern Lebanon. The Associated Press reported that a nearby vehicle was burned in the attack, citing a photographer who was there.
The Syndicate of Lebanese Press Editors condemned the “targeting” of journalists and called the killing of Abdallah a “deliberate crime”.
Rising tension
Since the Palestinian group Hamas launched a lightning attack on southern Israel from the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 1,300 people, Israel has been relentlessly bombing the besieged coastal territory. At least 1,900 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials.
As Israel is expected to launch a ground invasion of Gaza, there are growing fears that the fighting could spread to other fronts in the region. Armed groups in southern Lebanon have exchanged fire periodically along the northern border with Israel, where this week’s clashes have already been the worst since 2006.
Residents of northern Israel and southern Lebanon have witnessed cross-border exchanges with fearFearing the possibility of an escalation that could lead to a major conflict between Israel and the formidable Iran-backed Hezbollah group, he described Friday’s Israeli strike as a “heinous crime” that would not go without an “adequate response”.
“Our lives have come to a standstill,” Marie, a 28-year-old wedding planner from a village in southern Lebanon near Bint Jbeil, told Al Jazeera. “We don’t know when they will return to normal. We’re asking, ‘What’s next?’”.
Hezbollah is armed with an arsenal of long-range missiles and years of combat experience gained from fighting the Syrian war alongside the government of Bashar al-Assad. Its involvement would turn the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a two-front war, stretching the capacity of the Israeli military and leading to greater involvement of regional groups backed by Iran.
Israeli bombing killed three Hezbollah members earlier this week, and Hezbollah hit an Israeli position with an anti-tank missile. But so far, both sides have been limited to responses that have allowed them to avoid the kind of full-scale confrontation that would come at a heavy price.
Journalists killed in Gaza, Israel
There have been at least 10 journalists He was killed in Gaza and Israel since Saturday, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Saeed al-Taweel, Mohammed Subh and Hisham Alnwajha were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday.
Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi and Mohammad Jarghoun were shot while reporting on Saturday, according to the Palestinian press freedom group MADA and the Journalists’ Aid Committee.
Mohammad el-Salhi was shot dead on the eastern border of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Assaad Shamlakh was killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike in Sheikh Ijli, southern Gaza.
Photojournalist Mohammad Fayez Abu Matar was killed in an airstrike in Rafah, Israel, on Wednesday.
Ahmed Shehab was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit his home in Jabaliya on Thursday.
Israeli photographer Yaniv Zohar was killed in a Hamas attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
