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A cameraman for the Reuters news service, Issam Abdullah, was killed and six other journalists, from Reuters, Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse, were injured on Friday night amid escalating clashes on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
Mr. Abdullah’s death inside Lebanon was the first time that a journalist has been killed in the past week along the increasingly volatile border, an area that has seen fighting in recent days between Israeli forces and Iranian-backed militant groups, the most powerful of which is Hezbollah.
In a statement, Reuters confirmed Mr. Abdullah’s death and said two other Reuters journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, had been injured and were seeking medical care. The news service said it was gathering more information and working with authorities in the region but did not provide additional details.
Two journalists from Al Jazeera, Karmen Bakindar and Eli Brakhia, were also injured on Friday along Lebanon’s southern border, the Qatari broadcaster said.
Agence France-Presse said two of its journalists were also injured, and in an article on its wire service said Christina Assi, a photographer, and Dylan Collins, a video journalist, were taken to a hospital in Tyre, Lebanon for treatment.
Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, said all of the journalists were injured in the same incident.
Reuters said that Mr. Abdullah had been working as part of a crew that was providing a live signal in southern Lebanon. Footage circulating online of a Reuters livestream showed it pointed toward a hillside before an explosion hits.
“I can’t feel my legs,” a woman can be heard screaming in the background.
Then the feed is cut.
Footage broadcast on Lebanese television showed an injured woman in a press vest writhing on the ground in pain with a car burning behind her.
Olivia Dalton, a White House spokeswoman, expressed sympathy for the journalists killed and hurt. “Our heartfelt prayers are with the families — the family of the journalist who was killed, and also our prayers are with the injured journalists for their full and swift recovery,” she told reporters traveling with President Biden on Air Force One. “We know that the work that you all do is incredibly dangerous, and today is a reminder of that.”
Fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Friday, shattering a lull in the fighting a day earlier. The Israeli military said it had carried out drone strikes on Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon. Hezbollah announced earlier it had also targeted four separate Israeli locations in response to attacks by the country. The Lebanese army said one of its watchtowers had been targeted by Israeli shelling, but no injuries were reported.
In Gaza, at least eight journalists have been killed amid the spiraling violence, according to the Palestinian enclave’s government press office.
Peter Baker contributed reporting.
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