A damaged press vehicle at the site of an Israeli strike that killed at least three journalists. [Reuters]
Beirut, October 25 (RHC)-- At least three media staffers have been killed in an Israeli strike on a compound housing journalists in southern Lebanon. The Israeli strike targeted guesthouses housing at least 18 journalists from six media outlets, including Sky News, al-Jazeera and Lebanese broadcasters, in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon in the early hours of Friday.
The three killed in the strike included camera operator Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda of al-Mayadeen television network, and camera operator Wissam Qassem, who worked for al-Manar, the Lebanese media outlets said in separate statements.
Several other journalists were also injured in the attack, the first on Hasbaya Town, which is inhabited by both Muslims and Christians.
"The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists' nighttime break to betray them in their sleep," Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said in a post on X. "This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions. This is a war crime."
Muhammad Farhat, a reporter with the Lebanese outlet al-Jadeed, showed in a video the significant damage to the site, and overturned and damaged cars, some marked “Press”, saying Israel "fears...the voice of truth that exposes its crimes."
“We heard the airplane flying very low – that’s what woke us up – and then we heard the two missiles,” Farhat told Reuters. He said several bungalows had been damaged. “We had been reporting from there for about a month without anything happening. I don’t even know how I climbed out from under the rubble,” Farhat added.
Ghassan bin Jiddo, the director of al-Mayadeen, said on the channel’s X account that the strike was “deliberate.” “We hold the occupation (Israel) fully responsible for this war crime, in which journalist crews including the al-Mayadeen team were targeted,” he said.
The attack made it the deadliest day for media since the eruption of clashes between the Israeli regime and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement last year.
Five journalists, including Reuters visual journalist Issam Abdallah, were killed in previous Israeli strikes in Lebanon during the conflict.
Al-Mayadeen has repeatedly been targeted by Israeli strikes. On Wednesday, Israel struck an office used by al-Mayadeen in Beirut’s southern suburbs. According to Lebanon’s health ministry, one person was killed and five others, including a child, were wounded in the attack.
Last November, the Israeli troops targeted al-Mayadeen’s crew in South Lebanon, killing two journalists. Israel has been targeting Lebanon since October 2023, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah has been responding to the aggression with numerous retaliatory operations, including one with a hypersonic ballistic missile, targeting the occupied Palestinian territories.
Since late September, Israel has escalated its strikes against Hezbollah, assassinating its leader Hassan Nasrallah and a number of its senior figures.
At least 2,593 people have been killed by Israeli fire, and 12,119 others wounded since the clashes began last year, according to the health ministry.
The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its operations against Israel as long as the Israeli regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 42,847 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
