Lebanese photojournalist wounded in Israeli strike carries Olympic torch to honor journalists

AP, Sunday 21 Jul 2024

A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon carried Sunday the Olympic torch in Paris to honor journalists wounded and killed in the field.

Olympic
Press agency photographer Christina Assi, right, holds the Olympic torch with Nicolas Payeur, left, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 21, 2024, in Vincennes, outside Paris, France. AP

 

The torch relay, which started in May, is part of celebrations in which about 10,000 people from various walks of life were chosen to carry the flame across France before the Games opening ceremony on July 26.

Christina Assi, of Agence France-Presse, was among six journalists struck by Israeli shelling on Oct. 13 2023 while reporting on fire exchange along the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance group. The attack killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah. Assi was severely wounded and had part of her right leg amputated.

AFP videographer Dylan Collins, also wounded in the Israeli attack, pushed Assi's wheelchair as she carried the torch across the suburb of Vincennes Sunday. Their colleagues from the press agency and hundreds of spectators cheered them on.

“I wish Issam was here to see this. And I wish what happened today was not because we were struck by two rockets,” Assi told The Associated Press, struggling to hold back her tears. “I wish I could have honoured journalists this way while walking and in my best health.”

AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera accused Israel of targeting their journalists who maintained they were positioned far from where the clashes with vehicles clearly marked as press, while international human rights organizations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said the attack was a deliberate attack on civilians and should be investigated as a war crime.

“This is a chance to continue talking about justice, and the targeted attack on Oct. 13 that needs to be investigated as a war crime,” said Collins.

While holding the torch, Assi said participating in the relay “is to send a message that journalists should be protected and be able to work without fearing that they could die at any moment."

In late November 2023, Rabih al-Maamari and Farah Omar of the pan-Arab television network Al-Mayadeen were also killed in an  Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon while covering Israel's war on Gaza.

Assi doesn’t believe there will be retribution for the events of that fateful October day but hopes her participation in the Olympic torch relay can bring attention to the importance of protecting journalists. “For me, justice comes the day I can stand up again, hold my camera, and get back to work,” she said.

The watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists, in a preliminary count, said at least 108 journalists have been killed since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, the majority in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's brutal war on Gaza has killed at least 38,983 Palestinians and wounded over 89,727 others, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Hezbollah fighters have traded near-daily strikes with the Israeli military along their border over the past nine months.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online

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