BEIRUT: Lebanon will formally urge Israel to immediately halt attacks on journalists and paramedics during US-sponsored talks in Washington, a day after an Israeli strike killed a Lebanese reporter and wounded another in southern Lebanon.
An official source told Arab News that the demand was added to the agenda of Thursday’s meeting between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors at the US State Department, as concerns mounted over the safety of media workers and emergency responders in the conflict zone.
The move followed the killing of journalist Amal Khalil, who worked at local newspaper Al-Akhbar, and the wounding of photojournalist Zeinab Faraj in an Israeli strike on the road to the border town of Tayri in the Bint Jbeil district.
Officials in Lebanon say they were deliberately targeted as they sought shelter in a building after an initial air strike hit the vehicle in front of them, killing two men. Israeli warplanes struck the structure, destroying it.
According to official accounts, paramedics were able to pull Faraj from the building as it came under attack, but Khalil remained trapped under the rubble. Rescue teams were forced to withdraw after Israeli forces fired warning grenades near ambulances, preventing them from completing the operation.
Khalil’s body was recovered later on Wednesday night following coordination between Lebanese authorities, UNIFIL and the ceasefire monitoring mechanism, allowing the Lebanese military and Red Cross teams to return to the site.
Her death brings the number of journalists killed in Israeli strikes since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2023 to 27.
The first was Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike targeting a group of reporters despite their vehicles being clearly marked as press.
At least 35 journalists have been wounded since the escalation, some sustaining permanent injuries, according to Joseph El-Kosseifi, head of the Lebanese Editors Syndicate.
Among them is Agence France-Presse photojournalist Christina Assi, who was seriously injured while covering the conflict.
El-Kosseifi added that others have suffered temporary disabilities, with many still hospitalized and undergoing multiple surgeries.
Among those bearing the scars of the conflict is Haitham Al-Moussawi, a photojournalist with the newspaper Al-Akhbar, who lost nerve function in his leg after an Israeli airstrike struck Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.
Speaking to Arab News, Al-Moussawi recalled his final exchange with slain journalist Khalil.
He urged her to stay safe. She brushed it off. “She said, ‘It is our job, Haitham,’” he recalled.
When news of the strike broke, he immediately tried to reach her.
She picked up and hung up. He assumed she was alive, but too busy to talk. “I had no idea she was hiding,” he said.
Al-Moussawi described Khalil as a beloved figure and a role model for journalists covering the south.
“Her death brought me to tears. She was incredibly brave,” he said, noting that she consistently took safety precautions, wearing a flak jacket, helmet and clearly marked “PRESS” identification on her vehicle and body.
He said Khalil had told him she was heading out on assignment with photojournalist Faraj, accompanied by two municipal employees from Tayri — both of whom were killed when their vehicle was struck shortly before Khalil’s car came under attack.
Al-Moussawi was unequivocal about the nature of the attack.
“Amal was targeted by a warplane, not a drone,” he said. “They wanted to make sure she was dead by bringing the building she had taken as shelter down on top of her.”
He added that Khalil had received repeated warnings to leave the south but refused.
At the time of the attack, Khalil and her colleague Faraj were on a routine press mission, covering Papal Nuncio Archbishop Paolo Borgia’s visit to Christian border villages.
The envoy’s convoy, arriving from the town of Ain Ebel and accompanied by UNIFIL forces, Lebanese Army units, and Red Cross personnel, had just reached Tayri when the strike hit.
Lebanese officials accused the Israel Defense Forces of intentionally targeting a marked ambulance as it tried to reach the journalists. The IDF denied that it was preventing rescue teams from reaching the area and said it “does not target journalists.”
Israeli warplanes had previously killed journalists Ali Shuaib, Fatima Ftouni, and her brother, photographer Mohammed Ftouni, in a raid on Jezzine in southern Lebanon on March 28.
Their car was reportedly struck by four missiles, killing them instantly. In a separate attack, journalist Muhammad Sherri, who worked as a program director at Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, was killed when his home in Beirut’s southern suburbs was targeted.
El-Kosseifi said the targeted journalists were not members of any political party, but media professionals working for outlets that may hold political leanings without necessarily reflecting the personal views of those they employ.
“A media institution’s political stance does not make every journalist working within it politically affiliated,” he added, emphasizing that the deceased were civilians protected under international human rights principles and related media protocols.
He said Israel “has no justification” for striking journalists, and that the repeated nature of such attacks has led many in Lebanon to believe they were not accidental.
Human rights organizations and press freedom groups have repeatedly accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists in Gaza in an effort to suppress coverage, while critics warned that ongoing impunity risks normalizing attacks on members of the press.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that Israel’s “deliberate targeting of journalists in Lebanon is intended to conceal the truth about its aggression against the country.”
He added that such acts amount to crimes against humanity punishable under international law and norms, and should prompt the international community to intervene and put an end to them.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of war crimes after Khalil’s death.
“Targeting journalists, obstructing access to them by relief teams, and even targeting their locations again after these teams arrive constitutes described war crimes,” he said in a social media post.
He accused Israel of repeatedly targeting media workers in southern Lebanon in what he described as “an established approach” and not “an isolated incident,” vowing that Lebanon will pursue “these crimes before the competent international forums.”
Information Minister Paul Morcos described Khalil’s killing as “a heinous crime and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law that we will not remain silent about.
“Once again, we are appealing to the world and international organizations to support action to stop it and prevent its recurrence.”
The Lebanese Press Editors Syndicate called on journalists, out of concern for their safety, to exercise caution in their movements, avoid danger zones as much as possible, and steer clear of locations that could expose them to death.
The syndicate urged media professionals to take the initiative to coordinate with the Lebanese army and all other legitimate security forces in areas vulnerable to attacks, in addition to UNIFIL forces, Lebanese Red Cross teams and local relief organizations, to avoid any unexpected deadly risks.
The wounded photographer Faraj who suffered stomach bleeding as a result of serious injuries to her abdomen, head and leg, was transferred to Beirut on Thursday to undergo further surgeries.
Meanwhile, photographer Al-Mousawi faces a prolonged course of treatment that extends up to a year before he can recover and stand on his own again.
