Tehran, October 26 (RHC)-- The Iranian government spokeswoman says Israel’s airstrike on a journalist compound in southeastern Lebanon was a targeted state terrorism that aims to keep the world in the dark with respect to the crimes the regime is committing in Gaza and Lebanon.
In an Arabic post on her X account on Friday, Fatemeh Mohajerani said the Israeli regime’s shooting and attack on the building known to be housing reporters earlier in the day were not an accident.
Three Lebanese journalists from Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar news channels were killed and several others wounded in the Israeli airstrike on their press station in Lebanon’s town of Hasbaya.
The attack targeted guesthouse in a compound being used by more than a dozen journalists from at least seven media organizations - with a courtyard containing cars clearly marked "Press."
“The Zionist regime’s attack on media centers in Lebanon is a sign of a bigger disaster,” Mohajerani wrote. She added that criminals always try to prevent the world form becoming aware of their crimes.
She emphasized that the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols, which safeguard journalists and their equipment as civilian objects during armed conflicts, have been established for free flow of information and prevention of crimes in silence.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei also on Friday slammed in "strongest terms" the "deliberate" Israeli attack on journalists, saying it was “another instance of Israel’s atrocious war crime.”
In a statement on Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Israel’s targeting of journalists in Lebanon constitutes a "war crime" that will be referred to international authorities.
"The Israeli aggression targeting journalists and reporters in Hasbaya represents a new chapter in the war crimes committed by the Israeli enemy without any deterrent or international voice to halt the ongoing atrocities," Mikati asserted.