An Israeli attack on southern Lebanon kills a journalist and injures many others
An Israeli artillery attack hit a group of journalists from several media outlets who were clearly identified as journalists. According to witnesses and journalists present at the scene, at least one journalist was killed and six others were injured in shelling by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Reuters news agency confirmed on Friday that Issam Abdallah, a cameraman, was killed in the attack.
“We are urgently seeking further information, working with authorities in the region and supporting Issam’s family and colleagues,” Reuters said in a statement.
He said two other Reuters journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were injured.
Al Jazeera reported that among the injured were cameraman Elie Brakhya and journalist Carmen Joukhadar.
“A tank shell hit them directly. It was terrible. “The situation was there, I can’t explain it, I can’t describe it,” Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem reported from Alma ash-Shaab in Lebanon, adding that the team of journalists was clearly part of the press.
The new Agence France-Presse reported that two of its journalists were among the injured.AFP reported, citing a Lebanese security source, that the attack followed an attempt by a Palestinian faction to enter the Israeli border from southern Lebanon. The Associated Press, citing a photographer who was present, reported that a nearby vehicle was charred in the attack.
The Lebanese Press Publishers Union condemned the “attack” on journalists and described Abdallah’s murder as a “premeditated crime.”
Growing tension Israel has been carrying out a relentless bombardment of the besieged coastal area 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. According to Palestinian authorities, at least 1,799 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
As Israel plans a ground invasion of Gaza, fears are growing that fighting could spread to other fronts in the region. Armed groups from southern Lebanon have fired sporadically along Israel's northern border, where clashes this week have already been the bloodiest since 2006.
Residents of northern Israel and southern Lebanon have watched the cross-border trade with concern, fearing the possibility of escalation that could trigger a full-scale conflict between Israel and the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which called Friday's Israeli attack a "heinous crime.". “This situation will not go away without an appropriate response.” “Our lives are at a standstill,” Marie, a 28-year-old wedding planner from a southern Lebanese village near Bint Jbeil, told Al Jazeera. “We don’t know when they will return to normal. We ask ourselves: “What is the next step?” »
Hezbollah is armed with an arsenal of long-range missiles and has years of combat experience gained fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad's government in the war in Syria. His involvement would transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a two-front war, which could increase the potential of the Israeli military and trigger greater involvement from Iranian-backed regional groups. Israel's
bombing killed three Hezbollah members earlier this week, and Hezbollah hit an Israeli position with an anti-tank missile on Wednesday. But so far both sides have limited themselves to an “eye for an eye” response, which has allowed them to avoid a large-scale confrontation that would have been very costly.
journalists killed in Gaza, Israel At least 10 journalists have been 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.According to the Palestinian Association for Freedom of the Press (MADA) and the Committee to Support Journalists,
Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi and Mohammad Jarghoun were killed while reporting on Saturday.
Mohammad el-Salhi is shot dead at the border east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Assaad Shamlakh was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sheikh Ijlin in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Photojournalist Mohamed Fisent Abu Matar was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Rafah on Wednesday.
Ahmed Shehab was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his home in Jabalia on Thursday.
Yaniv Zohar, an Israeli photographer, is killed in a Hamas attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz.