Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah is laid to rest after he was killed by Israeli shelling that also wounded six others in Lebanon

Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was laid to rest in his home village in Lebanon today after he was killed by Israeli shelling that also wounded six others. 

Draped in a Lebanese flag, his body was carried on a stretcher through the streets of his southern town of Khiam, from his family’s home to the local cemetery.

Dozens of journalists and Lebanese politicians attended the funeral.

Mr Abdallah was killed Friday evening near the village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon when an Israeli shell landed on a gathering of international journalists covering exchange of fire along the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry asked Beirut’s mission to the United Nations to file a complaint against Israel over Friday’s shelling, calling it a ‘flagrant violation and a crime against freedom of opinion and press.’ 

Issam Abdallah, a Reuters journalist, was laid to rest in his home village in Lebanon today

Dozens of journalists and Lebanese politicians attended his funeral today in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam

The statement was carried by the state-run National News Agency. 

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Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said today: ‘We are aware of the incident with the Reuters journalist and we are looking into it.’

Hecht did not confirm that the journalists had been hit by Israeli shells, but called the incident ‘tragic,’ adding, ‘we’re very sorry for his death.’

Reuters said in a statement that two of its journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were wounded in the same shelling while Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV, said its cameraman Elie Brakhya and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, got wounded as well.

France’s international news agency, Agence France-Presse, said two of its journalists were also wounded: photographer Christina Assi, and video journalist Dylan Collins.

Mr Abdallah’s body was carried aloft in a funeral procession attended by hundreds of people 

Mr Abdallah was killed Friday evening near the village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon when an Israeli shell landed on a gathering of international journalists

AFP reported Saturday that photographer Christina Assi was in need of blood donations 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.

Journalists from various countries have been flocking to Lebanon to monitor the situation as tensions have been escalating between Hezbollah and Israel.

A journalist’s car burns at the site where Mr Abdallah was killed in an air strike