Prime Minister Nawaf Salam says attacks on media workers have become an established pattern, not isolated incidents
Amal Khalil, a reporter for Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper, was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern village of al-Tiri, where she was hiding after an earlier attack targeted the vehicle in which she was travelling.
His co-worker Zainab Faraz was seriously injured, and rescue workers were initially unable to recover Khalil’s body as Israeli fire forced them to cease their efforts for hours.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salaam said the attack was a war crime, arguing that Israel’s attacks on journalists could no longer be dismissed as isolated incidents.
“Targeting journalists, hindering the access of relief teams, and even retargeting the locations of these teams once they arrive are clearly defined war crimes.” he wrote in a post on X. “Lebanon will leave no stone unturned in pursuing these crimes before the competent international forums.”
Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Morcos said the journalists had been murdered. “A crime and a gross violation of international and humanitarian law.” The attack came despite a well-publicized ceasefire, with Israel still operating in occupied parts of southern Lebanon, keeping troops in an extended security zone, preventing many residents from returning, and reserving the right to open fire on imminent threats.
The Israel Defense Forces denied deliberately targeting journalists and said the incident was under review. The IDF claimed that people in the vehicles posed for photos. “imminent threat” Israeli troops after crossing the unilaterally declared Forward Defense Line in the occupied part of Lebanon.
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The murder is the latest in a string of attacks on media persons. On March 28, an Israeli attack on a clearly marked press car in southern Lebanon killed Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shoaib, Al-Mayadeen reporter Fatima Fatouni, and video journalist Mohammed Fatouni. Israel claimed that Shoaib was a Hezbollah intelligence agent, but provided no evidence.
Al-Manar TV journalist Hussein Hamoud was killed in an Israeli attack on Nabatieh on 25 March, while Lebanese radio presenter Ghada Dayek was killed in an Israeli attack on her home in Tire on 8 April.
RT correspondent Steve Sweeney and cameraman Ali Rida Sebti were also injured while filming near the al-Qasmiya Bridge in southern Lebanon on 19 March. An Israeli aircraft fired on their filming position despite their visible press markings, and Sweeney later described the attack. “Intentional, targeted attack.”
Khalil’s death brings to at least nine the number of journalists killed in Lebanon this year, according to the AP. Lebanese officials say more than 2,300 civilians have been killed, including at least 254 women and 168 children, in the latest escalation since Israel began its war campaign in Lebanon amid the wider US-Israeli war against Iran.
