Three sleeping journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike killed three journalists as they slept in a guesthouse in southeastern Lebanon early Friday. It is a rare blow to an area that has so far avoided fighting in the rest of the region.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on journalists covering the war in Gaza and Lebanon last year.

The 3 a.m. airstrike left the site – a row of guesthouses set among trees rented by various media outlets covering the war – in ruins, with cars marked “PRESS” overturned and covered in dust and debris. The Israeli army gave no warning before the strike and later said it was studying the situation.

Killed were cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida from the Beirut-based pan-Arab television Al-Mayadeen, as well as cameraman Wissam Kassim, who worked for the Al-Manar TV channel of the Lebanese group Hezbollah. This followed a strike earlier in the week at an office owned by Al-Mayadeen on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs. Both media outlets are linked to Hezbollah and its main backer, Iran.

The strike in the Hasbaya area, which has so far been spared Israeli airstrikes in other parts of southern Lebanon, drew widespread condemnation from officials, journalists and press advocacy groups. Film crews arrived in Hasbaya, finding it safer after Israel ordered the evacuation of the town they were reporting from further south.

“That’s why we consider this a direct attack aimed at getting journalists out of the south,” said Elsie Moufarrey, coordinator of the Alternative Press Syndicate in Lebanon. “They want to stop journalists from covering and being present in the south. Lebanon.”

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makari said the journalists were killed while reporting on what he called “Israeli crimes” and noted that they were among a large group of media representatives.

“This is a murder that occurred after monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and planning, as 18 journalists representing seven media outlets were present at the scene,” he wrote in a post on X.

Imran Khan, a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera English who was among the reporters at the Hasbaya Village Club guesthouses, said the airstrike came at around 3:30 a.m. without warning.

“They were just journalists sleeping in bed after long days covering the conflict,” he wrote on social media, adding that he and his team were not injured.

Hussein Hoteit, a cameraman for Egypt’s Al-Qahira TV channel, said he was sleeping when he woke up with a “huge weight” as the walls and ceiling collapsed. He was miraculously saved by his colleagues, who after a few minutes managed to move the debris that covered him.

He said two rockets hit a nearby chalet, although he did not hear them. He spoke from his hospital bed, where he is being treated for hip injuries.

Friday’s deaths were the latest in a long time. list of journalists who were killed by Israel last year in Gaza and Lebanon.

In a report published earlier this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinians, were killed in Gaza and Lebanon – more journalists than died in any year since the Committee began documenting the killings of journalists. in 1992. All but two of the killings were carried out by Israeli forces, the report said.

“One year later, Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip has taken an unprecedented and devastating toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape,” the report, published Oct. 4, said.

murder of journalists sparked an international outcry from press advocacy groups and United Nations experts, although Israel said it was not intentionally targeting them.

Lebanon’s health minister said 11 journalists have been killed and eight wounded by Israeli fire in Lebanon over the past year.

In November 2023 two Al-Mayadeen TV journalists were killed as a result of a drone strike. A month earlier, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon Reuters videographer killed Issam Abdallah and other journalists from the French international news agency Agence France-Presse and the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera were wounded.

This week Israel accused journalists working for Al Jazeera that they are members of militant groups, citing documents that were allegedly found in the Gaza Strip. The network rejected the allegations, calling them “a blatant attempt to silence the region’s few remaining journalists.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists also rejected them and said that “Israel has repeatedly made similar unsubstantiated claims without providing credible evidence.”

Jad Shahrour, a spokesman for the Samir Kassir Ice Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, told The Associated Press on Friday that the bombings of press centers were a deliberate attempt to erase the truth.

“This means they are cutting off the media,” he said, adding that this worrying trend is now moving from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon.

Al-Mayadeen director Ghassan bin Jiddo said Friday’s Israeli strike was deliberate and aimed at those covering elements of its military offensive.

Ali Shoeb, a prominent correspondent for Al-Manar in southern Lebanon, was seen on video filming himself on a mobile phone and saying that the cameraman who had been working with him for several months had been killed. Scheub said the Israeli military knew that journalists from various media outlets lived in the area of ​​the strike.

“We reported the news and showed the suffering of the victims, and now we are the news and the victims of Israel’s crimes,” Scheub added in a video shown on Al-Manar TV.

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Karam reported from London. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.