to report «iusnews»; Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kana’ani strongly condemned an artillery strike by the Israeli army against a vehicle carrying journalists in Southern Lebanon which led to the death of a Reuters journalist.
At least one journalist has been killed and six wounded in shelling by Israeli forces in Southern Lebanon. The Reuters news agency confirmed that Issam Abdallah, a videographer, was killed in the attack.
Kana'ani condemned the assault on Friday, and expressed sympathy towards the survivors as well as the international community of journalists.
Al Jazeera Media Network has confirmed cameraperson Elie Brakhia and reporter Carmen Joukhadar were also wounded.
The media Network said in a statement that Israeli troops had “once again attempted to silence the media by targeting journalists”, this time with a missile fired at a clearly marked Al Jazeera team and other reporters in Southern Lebanon.
“Israel’s targeting of the Al Jazeera team is a blatant disregard of international safety standards that clearly distinguish the press, as they shelled and burned an Al Jazeera broadcast vehicle despite our crew’s presence alongside other international media in an agreed upon location,” the network added.
“Al Jazeera strongly condemns these repeated atrocities which previously led to the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh,” the network noted, referring to the shooting of the well-known Palestinian-American reporter by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
Agence France-Presse also announced two of its reporters were also among those injured.
Lebanon’s Press Editors’ Syndicate has condemned the “targeting” of journalists and described the killing of Abdallah as a “deliberate crime”.
Since the Palestinian group Hamas conducted a military operation against the Zionist regime from the besieged Gaza Strip last Saturday, killing at least 1,300 people, Israel has carried out a relentless bombardment of the besieged coastal territory. At least 1,900 people have been killed in the Israeli air raids on Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities.
With Israel expected to launch a ground invasion of Gaza, there are growing fears that the fighting could spread to other fronts in the region. Resistance groups in Southern Lebanon have exchanged sporadic fire across the border, where clashes this week have already been the deadliest since 2006.
Israeli shelling 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 tit-for-tat responses that have allowed them to avoid the kind of full-blown confrontation that would come with a heavy price.
Hezbollah has called the Israeli strike on Friday a “heinous crime” that would not pass “without an appropriate response”.
At least 10 journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip and the occupied territories in recent days, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
