Agence France-Presse on Friday demanded an explanation from Israel’s ambassador to France after he admitted on French TV that his country was behind a 2023 attack on reporters in Lebanon.
A Reuters journalist was killed, and two AFP reporters were seriously wounded when they came under fire in southern Lebanon close to the border with Israel in October 2023.
Both news agencies and several NGOs concluded Israeli forces were behind the attack, but Israel has never formally acknowledged responsibility and has told AFP several times that the incident was still under review.
Israel’s ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka, however, conceded on a programme broadcast late Thursday that Israeli forces had made a “mistake” in firing on the group.
He insisted that the reporters “were not targeted because they were journalists” as “the soldiers on the ground thought that they were terrorists”.
AFP’s news director Phil Chetwynd wrote a formal letter to Zarka on Friday demanding more details.
“In our view, these remarks amount to the first public acknowledgement by an official Israeli representative that the two strikes which hit a clearly identified group of journalists were carried out by Israeli forces,” Chetwynd wrote.
“AFP is seeking precise and substantiated answers regarding what you yourself have described as a ‘mistake’.”
