An Israeli airstrike killed sleeping journalists covering the war in Lebanon News, sports, jobs

A destroyed journalist's car at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a complex housing journalists in the village of Hasbaya in southeastern Lebanon on Friday, October 25, killing three media workers from two different news outlets, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency were killed. 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike killed three journalists at dawn Friday as they slept in a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the media since hostilities broke out on the border a year ago.

It was a rare air raid on an area that had previously been spared from air raids and was used by the media as a base for reporting on the war.

The 3 a.m. airstrike reduced the site – a series of tree-lined chalets rented by various media outlets covering the war – to rubble with cars marked on it “PRESS” overturned and covered in dust and debris, and at least one live broadcast satellite dish was completely destroyed. The Israeli army issued no warning before the attack and later said it was investigating the case.

Mohammad Farhat, a reporter for Lebanese channel Al Jadeed TV in the south, said everyone ran out in their sleeping clothes. “The first question we asked each other: 'Are you alive?'”

Those killed were cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida from the Beirut-based pan-Arab television channel Al-Mayadeen TV, and cameraman Wissam Qassim, who worked for the Lebanese Hezbollah group's Al-Manar TV. This came after a strike earlier this week that hit an Al-Mayadeen office on the outskirts of Beirut's southern suburbs. Both media outlets are linked to Hezbollah and its main backer, Iran.

The airstrike early Friday was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on journalists covering the war in Gaza and Lebanon over the past year. Israel has not commented on the target of Friday's attack. But human rights groups say targeting journalists is a war crime.

“Journalists are civilians entitled to protection under international humanitarian law.” said Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. “It was particularly disturbing to see Israel attacking civilian institutions simply 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 accommodation was targeted.

“CPJ is deeply outraged by another deadly Israeli airstrike on journalists, this time hitting a compound housing 18 members of the press in southern Lebanon.” said the organization's program director, Carlos Martinez de la Serna.

The strike in the Hasbaya region was immediately condemned by officials, journalists and press advocacy groups. Television crews had arrived in Hasbaya thinking it was safer after Israel issued an evacuation order for a town further south from which they were reporting.

“That’s why we see it as a direct target aimed at getting the journalists out of the south.” said Elsy Moufarrej, coordinator of the Alternative Press Syndicate in Lebanon. “They want to prevent journalists from reporting on the south of Lebanon and being present there.”

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said the journalists were killed while reporting on what he described as “Israel.” “Crime” and discovered that they were part of a large group of media representatives.

“This is an assassination attempt, after surveillance and prosecution, with premeditation and planning, since 18 journalists representing seven media institutions were present at the site.” he wrote in a post on X.

Met in sleep

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

“These were just journalists sleeping in bed after long days of covering the conflict.” He posted on social media, adding that he and his team were uninjured.

Hussein Hoteit, a cameraman for Egypt's Al-Qahira TV, said he was sleeping when he woke up “huge weight” as the walls and ceiling collapsed. He was miraculously rescued by colleagues who managed to clear away the debris that covered him a few minutes later. Her team's house was closest to the house where Al-Mayadeen was staying.

He said two rockets hit the chalet next door, although he did not hear them. He spoke from his hospital bed, where he is being treated for thigh injuries.

Three of the 18 journalists staying in the guesthouse, including an Egyptian citizen, were injured.

Yumna Fawaz, a journalist for Lebanese broadcaster MTV, said she woke up when the roof fell over her head. She suffered a minor injury.

“This target destroyed the entire site. All the chalets were destroyed and the roofs fell over our heads.” Fawaz told The Associated Press. “That was the safe space. It had not been targeted before.”

An unprecedented tribute

Friday's deaths are the latest in a long list of journalists killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon over the past year.

In a report earlier this month, CPJ said at least 128 journalists and media workers, except five Palestinians, had been killed in Gaza and Lebanon – more journalists than in any year since it began documenting journalist killings in 1992. All but two of the killings were carried out by Israeli forces, it said.

“A year later, Israel’s warfare in Gaza has taken an unprecedented and terrible toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape.” it said. CPJ said it determined that at least five of the journalists, including one in Lebanon last year, were directly attacked by Israeli forces. The group is investigating additional cases and unconfirmed reports that other journalists have been killed, missing, detained, injured or threatened.

The killing of journalists has sparked an international outcry from press associations and United Nations experts, although Israel has said it is not specifically targeting them.

Lebanon's health minister says 11 journalists were killed and eight injured by Israeli fire in Lebanon last year.

In November 2023, two Al-Mayadeen TV journalists were killed in a drone strike at their broadcasting station. A month earlier, an Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon on a hill not far from the Israeli border killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and seriously injured other journalists from the French international news agency Agence France-Presse and the Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera TV.

This week Israel accused journalists working for Al Jazeera of being members of militant groups, citing documents the country said it found in Gaza. The network has denied the claims “An obvious attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region.”

CPJ also fired her and said this “Israel has repeatedly made similar unsubstantiated claims without providing credible evidence.”

Jad Shahrour, spokesman for the Samir Kassir Eyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, told the AP on Friday that the bombing of press centers was a deliberate attempt to erase the truth.

“That means they are introducing a media blackout.” he said, adding that it was a worrying trend that was now shifting from Gaza to Lebanon.

Al-Mayadeen director Ghassan bin Jiddo claimed that Friday's Israeli attack was deliberate and targeted those covering elements of its military offensive.

Ali Shoeib, Al-Manar's correspondent in southern Lebanon, said the cameraman who had worked with him for months was killed in the attack.

“We covered the news and showed the suffering of the victims, and now we are the news and the victims of Israeli crimes.” Shoeib said in a video broadcast on Al-Manar TV.