(12 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Naqoura, Lebanon – 12 June 2024
1. Wide of coffin of Saleh Ahmad Mehdi being carried to ambulance
2. Various of ambulance carrying coffin of Mehdi driving around town, women mourning
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Samir Al Hassan, funeral attendee:
“What can I say? He served his country. He worked on everything to do with water in the country and for his country. This is the person we lost.”
4. Various of prayers by the coffin
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahia Muslimani, funeral attendee:
“Saleh was one of the guys who was persistent and patient. He was a good person. He didn’t want to leave the town because he wanted to serve the public with water. Some people asked him why he didn’t leave. He said he wanted to stay to give people water and he wasn’t scared of death."
6. Various of coffin being carried, mourners waving flags
STORYLINE:
Dozens of people gathered in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura on Wednesday to mourn the death of a public utility worker killed by an Israeli drone strike.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the drone strike targeted a worker for the South Lebanon Water Establishment while he was driving his motorcycle in the coastal border town.
The worker, identified by the public utility company as Saleh Ahmad Mehdi, was severely injured before succumbing to his wounds.
The South Lebanon Water Establishment said Mehdi was helping to supply water to Naqoura when he was killed.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.
Over the past nearly eight months, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon in ongoing clashes between the Israeli military and the powerful Hezbollah group.
Most of the casualties were combatants but they also include more than 70 civilians and noncombatants.
In Israel, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since October.
Clashes began after Hezbollah struck military positions in northern Israel a day after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas.
Hezbollah, a key Hamas ally, maintains that it will stop attacking northern Israel when the war in Gaza ends.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel launched its campaign, vowing to eliminate Hamas, after the group and other militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage.
AP video shot by Mohamad Zinaty
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