Israeli missile killed Reuters journalist

Lebanon said yesterday that Israel was behind cross-border fire that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six others near the border the previous day.

Israel's military said it was looking into the circumstances of the fatal strike Friday which also injured journalists from AFP, Reuters, and Al Jazeera.

"We are very sorry for the journalist's death," military spokesman Richard Hecht told a briefing in reference to the Reuters video journalist killed, Issam Abdallah.

On the question of who launched the strike, Hecht said that "we are looking into it".

The Lebanese army said in a statement that "the Israeli enemy fired a rocket shell that hit a civilian car belonging to a media team, leading to the death of Issam Abdallah".

Lebanon's foreign ministry also blamed Israel and labelled the strike a "deliberate killing" and a "crime against freedom of speech and journalism".

The group of journalists from different media, wearing press vests and helmets, was near the village of Alma al-Shaab, close to the border with Israel, when they came under "direct" fire, according to two eyewitnesses.