Three journalists covering the Israel-Hezbollah war were killed and three others injured around 4 AM in an Israeli strike on a hotel housing journalists in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon.
No prior warning was issued by the Israeli army before the attack, which is believed to have specifically targeted the journalists.
The journalists from various local and Arab media outlets had vehicles that were clearly marked as press.
Hasbaya area, which has been relatively calm, is not under any evacuation orders and has not had any Hezbollah presence within it.
The Pan-Arab channel Al Mayadeen, affiliated with Hezbollah, confirmed that two of its staff members were among those killed. The victims were identified as camera operator Ghassan Najar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida.
Al-Manar TV, owned by Hezbollah, also reported that its camera operator, Wissam Qassim, died in the strike.
Lebanon’s Information Minister, Ziad Makary, claimed that the Israeli military waited until the journalists were asleep before launching the deliberate strike.
Minister Makary wrote on X that the three journalists from Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar TV channels had been broadcasting Israel’s “crimes” to the world.
“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and planning, as there were 18 journalists present at the location representing seven media institutions,” he stated.
“This is a war crime.”
However, this is far from the first instance of Israel targeting journalists since its war on Gaza began a year ago.
Two days ago, Israel struck Al Mayadeen’s office
The killings of the three journalists occurred just two days after Israel launched an airstrike on an Al Mayadeen office in Jnah, located in Beirut’s southern suburbs, on October 23.
Al Mayadeen stated,“Al Mayadeen holds the Israeli occupation accountable for the attack on a known media office for a known media outlet.”
The channel has stated that it evacuated its premises at the onset of the war.
Two Al Mayadeen journalists covering military activity along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel were also killed in an Israeli strike on November 21, 2023.
IDF labels six Al Jazeera Journalists in Gaza as terrorists
Yesterday, on October 24, the Israeli Defense Forces publicly identified six Al Jazeera journalists from Gaza as “Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists,” accusing them of leading Hamas propaganda.
Al Jazeera, the only international news organization with a permanent presence in Gaza, has denied the accusations, defending its journalists and asserting that Israel is attempting to obstruct all coverage of its military operations in northern Gaza.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) have condemned this tactic, asserting that such unproven claims endanger journalists’ lives.
The IFJ has called for an international investigation into Israel’s alleged targeting and killing of journalists, urging immediate protection for Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
The PJS has similarly called on the global community, human rights organizations, and UN institutions to investigate Israel’s accusations and to act urgently to safeguard Palestinian journalists.
Calls for accountability after Reuters journalist Abdallah’s death in 2023
On October 13, 2023, two Israeli strikes targeted a group of Lebanese, American, and Iraqi journalists in southern Lebanon, killing Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injuring six others.
Evidence suggests that the Israeli military knew or should have known that the group was composed of civilians. An independent Reuters investigation into Abdallah’s killing found that Israel was aware of the presence of journalists in the area it fired shells into.
Human Rights Watch condemned the attack as an apparently deliberate assault on civilians, constituting a war crime.
“This is not the first time Israeli forces have seemingly targeted journalists, with deadly and devastating results,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Those responsible need to be held to account, making it clear that journalists and other civilians are not lawful targets.”
According to preliminary investigations by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 128 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, as of October 24, 2024.
With today’s killings of two Al Mayadeen journalists and one from Al Manar-TV, the death toll has risen to 131.