Photojournalist Paolo Pellegrin of Magnum Photos was one of several people injured in an Aug. 6 missile attack in southern Lebanon.
Pellegrin and reporter Scott Anderson were traveling together in Tyre on assignment for The New York Times Magazine. They were treated for their injuries and now are back at work in Lebanon.
"They're in Beirut. They're fine," says Kathy Ryan, director of photography for Times magazine.
Anderson, Pellegrin and their driver each suffered a concussion, and Pellegrin and the driver also received shrapnel wounds, says Anderson, writing by e-mail from Lebanon. (Pellegrin was working on deadline Monday and unavailable for an interview, Magnum editorial director Sue Brisk said.)
The two journalists received medical care in Tyre and were examined later at a hospital in Beirut, according to Paul Tough, Anderson's editor at the Times magazine. Anderson and Pellegrin have worked as a team before and have been in Lebanon for several weeks.
Anderson says the attack happened as about 10 journalists traveled to the scene of a missile attack in the northern section of Tyre, the main city in southern Lebanon.
Pellegrin and Anderson were in the lead car of a caravan and pulled up next to an injured man in the street. Just as they got out of the car, a second missile from an Israeli drone struck about 20 feet away. The explosion killed the man in the street, Anderson says.
Anderson says the incident has made them a bit more cautious about rushing to the scenes of explosions, knowing a second missile may be imminent.
"I think it also made both of us more aware of just how much the Israelis could see everything that was going on below, that if they wanted to hit you, they could – an odd combination of reassuring and nerve-wracking," Anderson wrote in an e-mail.
An account of the attack appeared Thursday in an open letter from the Committee to Protect Journalists to Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. The letter objected to Israel's threat to attack any moving vehicle in southern Lebanon, saying the restriction presented an unreasonable burden to civilians, including journalists trying to cover the war.
Pellegrin, a Magnum member since 2005, is an experienced conflict and crisis photojournalist. He has won numerous awards and shoots regularly for Newsweek.
