[ad_1]
KHIAM, Lebanon — A Reuters videographer killed in Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon was laid to relaxation in his hometown Saturday in a funeral procession attended by a whole lot of individuals.
Draped in a Lebanese flag, Issam Abdallah’s physique was carried on a stretcher by way of the streets of the southern city of Khiam, from his household’s house to the native cemetery.
Dozens of journalists and Lebanese lawmakers attended the funeral.
Abdallah was killed Friday night close to the village of Alma al-Shaab in south Lebanon when an Israeli shell landed on a gathering of worldwide journalists protecting trade of fireplace alongside the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
The Lebanese military mentioned in a press release Saturday that Israeli troops fired a shell the day earlier than hitting a civilian automotive utilized by journalists killing Abdallah and wounding others. The military mentioned that different areas in south Lebanon on the time had been focused by an Israeli helicopter gunship and artillery, together with the outskirts of the villages of Marwaheen, Kfar Chouba, Aita al-Shaab and Odaisseh.
Lebanon’s International Ministry requested Beirut’s mission to the United Nations to file a criticism in opposition to Israel over Friday’s shelling, calling it a “flagrant violation and against the law in opposition to freedom of opinion and press.” The assertion was carried by the state-run Nationwide Information Company.
The Israel Protection Forces mentioned in a press release Saturday that it responded with tank and artillery fireplace after a missile was fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah. The incident is underneath overview, the IDF mentioned.
An Israeli navy spokesperson, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, informed The Related Press in Jerusalem earlier Saturday, “We’re conscious of the incident with the Reuters journalist and we’re trying into it.”
Hecht didn’t affirm that the journalists had been hit by Israeli shells, however referred to as the incident “tragic,” including that “we’re very sorry for his dying.”
Reuters mentioned in a press release that two of its journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, had been wounded in the identical shelling, whereas Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV mentioned its cameraman Elie Brakhya and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, had been wounded as effectively.
France’s worldwide information company, Agence France-Presse, mentioned two of its journalists had been additionally wounded. They had been recognized as photographer Christina Assi, and video journalist Dylan Collins.
AFP reported Saturday that Assi was in want of blood transfusions on the American College Medical Middle in Beirut the place she was hospitalized.
The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing sporadic acts of violence since Saturday’s shock assault by the militant Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel.
Journalists from varied nations have been flocking to Lebanon to observe the state of affairs.
The worldwide watchdog group Reporters With out Borders mentioned Saturday that Abdallah, 37, was the seventh journalist to be killed protecting the Israel-Hamas conflict in every week, together with six killed within the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has adopted the lethal Oct. 7 offensive by Hamas.
The group mentioned that Abdallah and the others with him had been “clearly identifiable” as journalists “in line with a number of sources.”
Abdallah had labored for Reuters in Beirut for 16 years and had lined different conflicts, together with the conflict in Ukraine.
Every week earlier than his dying, he had posted a tribute to Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist with the Al Jazeera satellite tv for pc channel who was killed whereas protecting an Israeli navy raid within the occupied West Financial institution, on his social media accounts.
[ad_2]
Source link