BEIRUT (AP) — Three journalists were killed in an Israeli air strike early Friday as they slept in a guesthouse in southeastern Lebanon.
It was a rare airstrike in an area hitherto free of airstrikes and was used by the media as a rallying point for the war.
A 3 a.m. airstrike turned the site — a series of cabins nestled among trees rented by various media outlets covering the war — into rubble, with cars marked “PRESS” overturned and covered in dust and debris, as well as at least one satellite dish. Live broadcasting is completely destroyed. The Israeli military did not issue a warning before the attack, saying it would consider it later.
Mohamed Farhad, a reporter for Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV in the south, said everyone rushed out in their sleeping clothes. “The first question we asked each other was: ‘Are you alive?’
Ghazan Najjar, a camera operator and broadcast technician for Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV, and Mohammad Rida, a camera operator who worked for Lebanon’s Hezbollah group Al-Manar TV, were killed. It came earlier in the week after a strike hit an office owned by al-Mayadeen in a suburb of Beirut’s southern suburbs. Both outlets are affiliated with Hezbollah and its main backer, Iran.
The airstrike early Friday was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks against journalists covering the war Gaza and Lebanon In the past year. Israel did not comment on Friday’s attack on what was targeted. But human rights groups say the deliberate targeting of journalists is a war crime.
“Journalists are civilians entitled to protection under international humanitarian law,” said Aya Majsoub, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. “It is particularly troubling to see Israel targeting civilian organizations because of their affiliation with Hezbollah.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was appalled by the killing of the three journalists and called for an independent investigation into why their residences were targeted.
“CPJ is deeply outraged by yet another deadly Israeli airstrike on journalists, this time in southern Lebanon hitting a compound housing 18 journalists,” said Carlos Martinez de la Cerna, the organization’s program director.
The strike in Hasbaya region drew immediate condemnation from officials, journalists and press advocacy groups. Television crews have arrived in Hasbaya, deemed safe after Israel ordered the evacuation of a town further south.
“That’s why we consider it a direct target aimed at expelling journalists from the south,” said Elsie Moufarage, coordinator of the Alternative Press Syndicate in Lebanon. “They want to prevent journalists from gathering news in the south of Lebanon.”
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makari said the journalists were killed while reporting on what he called Israel’s “crimes,” and noted that they were among a large group of media members.
“It was a massacre with pre-planning and planning, with 18 journalists at the scene representing seven media houses, after monitoring and surveillance,” he wrote in a post on X.
Struck in his sleep
Al Jazeera English’s senior correspondent Imran Khan, who was among journalists at the Hasbaya Village Club guesthouse, said the airstrike took place without warning at 3:30am.
“These are journalists sleeping in bed after long days of reporting on the conflict,” he posted on social media, adding that he and his crew were unhurt.
Hussein Hotteid, a cameraman for Egypt’s Al-Qahira TV, said he was sleeping when a “huge weight” woke him up as the walls and roof collapsed. He was miraculously saved minutes later by colleagues who moved the debris covering him. Their group’s house was very close to al-Mayadeen’s house.
He said two missiles hit the room next door, although he didn’t hear them. He spoke from his hospital bed, where he is being treated for thigh injuries.
Three of the 18 journalists staying at the guesthouse were injured, including an Egyptian national.
Yumna Fawaz, a journalist for Lebanon’s MTV station, said she woke up when the roof collapsed on her head. She suffered minor injuries.
“The target destroyed the entire complex. All the rooms were destroyed, the roofs fell over our heads,” Fawaz told The Associated Press. “This is a safe place. It has not been targeted before.
An unprecedented number
Friday’s deaths were the latest in a long time List of journalists Those killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon in the past year.
In a report earlier this month, CPJ said at least 128 journalists and media workers, including five Palestinians, have been killed in Gaza and Lebanon — more journalists than have died in any year since it began documenting journalist killings in 1992. It said all but two killings were carried out by Israeli forces.
“In one year, Israel’s war in Gaza has taken an unprecedented and terrifying toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape,” it said. At least five journalists, including one in Lebanon, were directly targeted by Israeli forces last year, CPJ said. The Committee is investigating other cases and unconfirmed reports that other journalists have been killed, disappeared, detained, injured or threatened.
The Journalists are murdered The press prompted international outcry from advocacy groups and United Nations experts, although Israel has said it did not deliberately target them.
Lebanon’s health minister has said that 11 journalists have been killed and 8 injured in Israeli shootings in Lebanon in the past year.
In November 2023, Two journalists from Al-Mayadeen TV were killed In a drone strike where they were reporting. A month ago, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon Reuters videographer killed Issam Abdullah and other journalists from France’s international news agency Agence France-Presse and Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV were seriously injured on a mountaintop not far from the Israeli border.
This week, Israel Journalists working for Al Jazeera were charged Members of militant groups, citing documents allegedly found in Gaza. The network has denied the claims as a “blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region”.
The CPJ rejected them as well, saying that “Israel has repeatedly made similar unsubstantiated claims without producing credible evidence.”
Jad Shahroor, a spokesman for the Sameer Kasir Eyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, told the AP on Friday that the bombardment of press centers is a deliberate attempt to destroy the truth.
“It means they are establishing a media blackout,” he said, adding that it was a troubling trend that could now shift from Gaza to Lebanon.
Al-Mayadeen’s director, Ghazan bin Zito, alleged that Friday’s Israeli attack was deliberate and included elements of its military offensive.
Ali Shoaib, a reporter for al-Manar in southern Lebanon, said a camera operator who had worked with him for months was killed in the attack.
“We used to report the news and show the suffering of the victims, and now we are the news and the victims of Israel’s crimes,” Shoaib said in a video aired on Al-Manar TV.
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Karam reported from London. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.
