Funeral held for Reuters journalist as Lebanon filing UN complaint and Israel investigates
Issam Aballah among journalists covering clashes on Lebanon's border with Israel
The Israeli army said Saturday it was investigating an incident in southern Lebanon in which a Reuters journalist was killed.
The news came the same day Lebanon's Foreign Affairs Ministry said it plans to submit a formal complaint to the United Nations Security Council on "Israel's deliberate killing" of Issam Abdallah, a Lebanese national and visuals journalist whose funeral on Saturday was attended by hundreds of people.
A Reuters witness at the scene has said he was struck by missiles fired from the direction of Israel.
Draped in a Lebanese flag, Abdallah's body was carried Saturday on a stretcher through the streets of the southern town of Khiam, from his family's home to the local cemetery.
Dozens of journalists and Lebanese lawmakers attended the funeral.
The Lebanese army said in a statement on Saturday that Israeli troops fired a shell the day before, hitting a civilian car used by journalists, killing Abdallah and wounding others. The army said other areas in south Lebanon at the time were targeted by an Israeli helicopter gunship and artillery, including the outskirts of the villages of Marwaheen, Kfar Chouba, Aita al-Shaab and Odaisseh.
Israel's military said it used tank and artillery fire in the area to prevent an infiltration from Lebanon around the time of Abdallah's death. It said its actions followed Hezbollah fire along the Israel-Lebanon border and that the incident was under review.
2 journalists also wounded
Abdallah was with a group of journalists from other organizations, including Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse, when he was killed while providing a live video signal for broadcasters.
The group was working near the village of Alma al-Shaab, close to the Israel border, where the Israeli military and Hezbollah have been trading fire in border clashes.
Maher Nazeh, who was wounded in the same incident along with his Reuters colleague, Thaer Al-Sudani, said they were filming missile fire coming from the direction of Israel when one struck Abdallah as he was sitting on a low stone wall near the rest of the group. Seconds later, another missile hit the car being used by the group, setting it aflame.
Qatar's Al Jazeera TV said its cameraman, Elie Brakhya, and reporter, Carmen Joukhadar, were wounded as well. France's international news agency, Agence France-Presse, said two of its journalists were also wounded. They were identified as photographer Christina Assi and video journalist Dylan Collins.
AFP reported on Saturday that Assi was in need of blood transfusions at the American University Medical Center in Beirut, where she was hospitalized. The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing sporadic acts of violence since Saturday's surprise attack by the militant Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel.
While other news outlets, including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera, said the shells were Israeli, Reuters could not establish whether the missiles had actually been fired by Israel.
The international watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said Saturday that Abdallah, 37, was the seventh journalist to be killed covering the Israel-Hamas war in a week, including six killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has followed the deadly Oct. 7 offensive by Hamas.
The organization said Abdallah and the others with him were "clearly identifiable" as journalists, according to several sources.
Abdallah had worked for Reuters in Beirut for 16 years and had covered other conflicts, including the war in Ukraine.
A week before his death, he had posted a tribute on his social media accounts to Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist with the Al Jazeera satellite channel who was killed while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank.
With files from The Associated Press and CBC News