A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike in south Lebanon has carried the Olympic torch in Paris to honour the journalists wounded and killed in the field.
The torch relay, which started in May, is part of the celebrations in which about 10,000 people from various walks of life were chosen to carry the flame across France before the Olympic Games open on July 26.
Christina Assi of Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency was among a group of journalists struck by Israeli shelling on October 13, 2023, while reporting on a fire exchange along the border between Israeli troops and members of Hezbollah.
Assi was severely wounded and had part of her right leg amputated.
The attack killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah. Al Jazeera said its cameraperson Elie Brakhia and reporter Carmen Joukhadar were injured, along with AFP videographer Dylan Collins.
In November last year, Rabih al-Maamari and Farah Omar of the pan-Arab television network Al-Mayadeen were also killed in an apparent Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon while covering the conflict.
‘Wish Issam was here’
On Sunday, Collins pushed Assi’s wheelchair as she carried the torch across the suburb of Vincennes as their AFP colleagues 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.”
Agence France Presse (AFP) Lebanese photographer Christina Assi (C) helped by AFP video journalist Dylan Collins (L), waves after receiving the Olympic flame during the Olympic Torch Relay in Vincennes, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. #OlympicGames
📸Dimitar DILKOFF #AFP pic.twitter.com/FrIyVzmnv9
— AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) July 21, 2024
Al Jazeera, AFP and Reuters have all accused Israel of targeting their journalists, saying that their employees were positioned far from where the clashes with Hezbollah took place and that their vehicles were clearly marked as belonging to the press.
Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say the Israeli attack was deliberate and should be investigated as a war crime. On Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media watchdog, said at least 108 journalists, most of them Palestinians, have been killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
“This is a chance to continue talking about justice, and the targeted attack on October 13 that needs to be investigated as a war crime,” said Collins.
The Israeli military at the time said the incident was under review, maintaining it didn’t target journalists.
However, a Reuters investigation found that an Israeli tank killed Abdallah and wounded six others after it fired two shells in quick succession while the journalists were filming the clashes.
Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem, reporting from Alma ash-Shaab, Lebanon, at that time said, “The tank shell hit them directly. It was horrible. The situation over there was – I can’t explain, I can’t describe it.” He said the team of reporters was clearly marked as press.
While holding the Olympic torch on Sunday, 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”.
Assi said she did not believe there would be retribution for the events of that fateful October day, but hoped her participation in the Olympic event could bring attention to the importance of protecting journalists.
“For me,” she said, “justice comes the day I can stand up again, hold my camera, and get back to work.”
