The Agence France-Presse (AFP) called on Saturday for Israel and Lebanon to conduct a thorough investigation into the attack on journalists that occurred on Friday, resulting in the death of their colleague Issam Abdallah and the injury of six others.

The journalists were covering the situation near the village of Alma el-Chaab in southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border.

Fabrice Fries, the CEO of AFP, emphasized the importance of determining “how a group of clearly identified and accredited journalists could be targeted in this manner.”

Since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Gaza which began on October 7 following an unprecedented attack by Hamas, southern Lebanon has been at the forefront of hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, as well as a scene for infiltration attempts from Lebanon into Israel.

Based on footage captured by American video journalist Dylan Collins of AFP, who was injured by shell fragments, a flash of light originated from the Israeli position just before it hit the journalists.

Collins explained, “We were filming the smoke from an Israeli artillery strike on a distant hill in front of us. We were in an open field, wearing our press vests and helmets.” He further clarified that there was no military activity or artillery fire in the immediate vicinity of the journalists.

Suddenly, the journalists heard small-arms fire coming from a different direction near the border. When they turned their cameras in that direction, it appeared that a rocket was fired from the Israeli side, causing the attack.

“I saw my colleague Christina Assi on the ground with serious leg injuries. As I tried to apply a tourniquet to her, we were hit again, directly from the same location,” Collins described.

Carmen Joukhadar, a correspondent for the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera who was hospitalized in Beirut, accused Israel of directly targeting her and the other journalists.

“At six o’clock, the first strike happened, I ran to our car, then I thought I shouldn’t stay near it, so I ran away, and the second strike happened,” she recalled.

Al-Jazeera accused Israel of firing a rocket from an Apache helicopter.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stated on Saturday that Israel had struck a position located “about 2.5 kilometers from the village of Alma el-Chaab around 5:20 pm on Friday, followed by exchanges of fire and explosions.” UNIFIL noted that, at this stage, they cannot confirm with certainty how the group of journalists was struck.

By Vanessa Kallas with AFP