LONDON: Lebanese journalist Hadi Al-Sayed was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Monday, according to Al-Mayadeen, the network he worked for.
The attack on his home in southern Lebanon occurred during an Israeli offensive that claimed more than 500 lives.
“Al-Mayadeen Media Network mourns our colleague at Al-Mayadeen Online Hadi Al-Sayed, who was martyred in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home in southern Lebanon yesterday, Monday,” the outlet posted on X.
Sayed is the fifth journalist to fall victim to the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
In a similar incident last November, Al-Mayadeen reported the deaths of correspondent Farah Omar, cameraman Rabih Me’mari, and a third unnamed journalist in an Israeli attack.
Ghassan bin Jiddo, director of the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen, labeled these strikes as “direct attacks,” following the channel’s blacklisting by Israel for allegedly “serving enemy interests during wartime.”
The killing of journalists has drawn significant scrutiny, especially after separate investigations found that Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah was deliberately targeted by Israeli tank shelling in October while covering cross-border clashes in southern Lebanon.
Independent inquiries by Reuters, AFP, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders concluded that the attack on Abdallah and other media personnel was a deliberate violation of international law. These organizations have since called for a war crimes investigation.
Since the conflict, which has now drawn in Hezbollah, erupted between Israel and Hamas in October, Israel has been accused of killing at least 114 journalists and media workers, with actual numbers potentially higher.
