Israeli strike that wounded TV crew in Lebanon not ‘accidental’, Russia says

Russia has condemned an Israeli air strike that injured a TV crew from state-run RT in Lebanon as not “accidental”.

Video agency Ruptly - a subsidiary of RT - posted footage showing an explosion and plumes of smoke rising metres behind RT’s reporter Steve Sweeney, who was wearing a bulletproof vest with a sign “Press” on it, as he delivered an on-air report.

Sweeney and his cameraman “were injured in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon while they were reporting”, Ruptly said on Telegram, adding both were “conscious and receiving medical attention”.

“Given the killing of 200 journalists in Gaza, today’s events cannot be called accidental,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Telegram, without naming Israel.

“The rocket hit not a ‘critical strategic military facility’, but rather the location of a report,” Zakharova added.