A Reuters journalist has been killed and six journalists were injured after shelling in southern Lebanon.
“We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer, Issam Abdallah, has been killed,” said a Reuters spokesperson.
The shelling occurred during an exchange of fire along the border with Israel, during which there have been sporadic artillery exchanges between Israeli forces on one side and Palestinian militants and members of the Iran-backed militant group Hizbollah on the other, since the start of hostilities last Saturday.
Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the journalists had been “targeted” by “direct Israeli bombing,” according to the state news agency.
The UN’s peacekeeping forces said a “heavy exchange of fire erupted between Lebanon and Israel” in the areas the journalists had been positioned. Journalists at the scene said it was Israeli shelling.
Reuters journalists Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh were injured, as were Dylan Collins and Christina Assi of Agence France-Presse and Carmen Joukhadar and Eli Brakhia of Al Jazeera.