Israeli airstrikes kill two journalists in Lebanon
BEIRUT: An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed two journalists who were reporting for a Beirut-based TV station on military activity along the border with Israel, according to Lebanese officials and the broadcaster.
The Pan-Arab TV channel Al-Mayadeen identified the journalists killed in the town of Tair Harfa as correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari. It said they were “martyred by treacherous Israeli targeting.”
Last week, the Israeli government blocked the Al-Mayadeen channel from broadcasting in Israel. The airstrike that hit the journalists also killed a Lebanese civilian, Hussein Akil, according to Al-Mayadeen and Lebanon’s state media.
The Israeli military said its soldiers took action against an alleged threat posed by a weapons launching area in southern Lebanon. It said the attack was under review.
“We are aware of a claim regarding journalists in the area who were killed as a result,” the military said. “This is an area with active hostilities, where exchanges of fire occur. Presence in the area is dangerous.”
The deaths bring the number of journalists who have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began last month to at least 50, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Most were Palestinian journalists working in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon on October 14 killed Reuters video journalist Issam Abduallah and wounded other journalists from France’s international news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV.
The first month of the Israel-Gaza war is now the deadliest month for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists began documenting journalist fatalities in 1992.
The Lebanon-Israel border has seen daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli troops. The clashes have raised concerns that Hezbollah will join the Hamas-Israel war. Hezbollah’s media office vowed in a statement that the killing of the journalists “will not pass without retaliation.”
The deaths of the Al-Mayadeen journalists spurred a widespread outcry in Lebanon. “It was direct targeting. It was not a coincidence,” Al-Mayadeen director Ghassan bin Jiddo said while holding back tears during a live broadcast. They join “the martyrs of Gaza,” he said.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the strike, saying that “this aggression proves again that there are no limits to Israel’s crimes whose main goal is to silence the media that is revealing its crimes.”
“Treacherous Israel is targeting media crews in south Lebanon,” Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said, describing the strike as “outrageous.”
Hamas also condemned the attack, calling it in a statement “a continuation of the savage war on our Palestinian people and our Arab and Muslim nation.”
In her last live report shortly before her death, Omar cited a Hezbollah statement issued Tuesday morning claiming a strike on a house in the northern Israeli city of Metula, where Israeli soldiers were stationed. Hezbollah said the attack was in retaliation for Israel targeting civilian homes in south Lebanon.
“We are still in the early hours of the day, and we are following any developments that might happen,” the correspondent said, speaking some of the last words.