“We are urgently seeking more information, working with the authorities in the region,” said Reuters in a statement. The videographer Abdallah was part of the news agency team in southern Lebanon.
One of the injured reporters, working for AFP, said that the group was caught up in cross-border shelling, the French news agency has reported.
Two AFP journalists were taken to the hospital in the city of Tyre for treatment. Reuters said in a statement that two other journalists were wounded and released from the hospital, after receiving medical treatment. Al Jazeera confirmed that two of their reporters were also among the injured.
On 14 October, quoted by AFP, the Israeli military spokesman said :"We are very sorry for the journalist's death."
IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “We mourn the loss of journalist Issam Abdallah and send our condolences to his beloved ones. I strongly condemn this Israeli strike against journalists in Lebanon. It is particularly outrageous because all the journalists were clearly identified with “Press” bullet-proof jackets and helmets. In this context of war, which now extends to southern Lebanon, these colleagues were targeted because they were journalists.
The IFJ demands that the Israeli perpetrators of these crimes be tried and punished before international criminal courts. Crimes against journalists must not go unpunished.”
On 13 October, the IFJ, the only professional organisation representing journalists at the United Nations – as it has since 1953 –, called on the United Nations agency responsible for the protection and safety of journalists, to do everything possible to ensure that journalists in the region, both national and foreign, are able to carry out their mission of informing the public in complete safety.