Lebanon bombing kills Reuters journalist

2023-10-14 02:36:50

A journalist from the Reuters news agency has been killed and four other reporters injured in a bombing in southern Lebanon during a day of hostilities between the Israeli Army and Lebanese militias, as confirmed by the British media in a statement.

The deceased has been identified as Isam Abdullah, a cameraman who “was part of a Reuters team in southern Lebanon that provided a live feed,” the media reported. “We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region and supporting Isam’s family and colleagues. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time,” according to the news organization.

Reuters journalists Thaer al Sudani and Maher Nazeh have also been injured and are receiving medical attention, according to the agency, while a spokesperson for the outlet has limited itself to indicating that the reporter died “due to an artillery attack on the Lebanese border.” with Israel,” reports DPA. For its part, the pan-Arab network Al Jazeera has confirmed that two of its reporters, identified as Carmen Youkadar and Eli Brakhia, have also been injured in this incident, which the chain’s management blames Israel.

The acting Prime Minister of Lebanon, Nayib Mikati has unequivocally condemned what happened and held Israel responsible for the bombing.. “The fact that the Israeli enemy has directly targeted journalists in Lebanese territory is yet another act of shame for Israel,” he declared in a statement reported by ‘L’Orient le Jour’.

For its part, Reporters Without Borders has made known that preliminary information indicates that the journalists hit “were identified as such and were not surrounded by combatants,” said the head of the NGO’s Middle East section, Jonathan Daghar. . “We are missing a little information but everything points to a deliberate attack. If it has been, we are talking about a war crime“, he indicated about an event that is reminiscent of the murder of Al Jazeera journalist Shirín abu Aklé in May 2022 when she was shot in the head by the Israeli Army while covering an operation by the Armed Forces in Jenin, in the West Bank. The military Israelis acknowledged their guilt in what happened.

For his part, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has highlighted “the extent to which this demonstrates the enormous risk of this conflict spreading, especially in relation to Lebanon.” Likewise, he has paid tribute “to the journalists who unfortunately (…) are paying with their lives”, highlighting the importance of the “work they do to bring the truth to everyone in the world.”

Previously, Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, had also expressed his condemnation of the attack and conveyed the organization’s regret over the death of the journalist in southern Lebanon. “Protecting journalists is a concern for all of us. While journalists defend the truth, we support them,” Dujarric said on his official profile on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter.

Clashes

The event took place when the vehicle was traveling through the Lebanese town of Alma el Chaeb, the scene this afternoon of an exchange of gunfire and artillery between the Israeli Army and “an unidentified party on the Lebanese side”, according to the Lebanese Army, in relation to the Hezbollah militias, which have ultimately claimed responsibility for these attacks. Lebanese military sources also confirmed to the Lebanese newspaper ‘L’Orient le Jour’ and the Lebanese TV network LBC Israeli impacts against a military observation tower in the area.

For its part, the Israeli Army has reported in recent hours first an explosion that has caused minor damage to a section of the security wall on the border with Lebanon, near the Hanita kibbutz, which has led Israeli forces to respond with artillery fire against Lebanon to prevent possible infiltration.