Lebanon says Israeli strike that killed media workers a ‘war crime’

BEIRUT: Lebanon accused Israel of targeting journalists in a “deliberate” attack that killed three media workers in the country’s south on Friday, calling the incident a “war crime”.

Asked by AFP for comment, the Israeli military has not yet responded.

Israel has been at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon since late last month, in a bid to secure its northern border after nearly a year of cross-border fire from the Iran-backed armed group.

Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israel in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinians’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in its history.

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Pro-Iran Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen said cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda were killed in the strike on a journalists’ residence in Hasbaya, south Lebanon.

Another TV outlet, Al-Manar, run by Hezbollah, said video journalist Wissam Qassem was also killed in the strike on a bungalow located in a resort that several media organisations covering the Israel-Hezbollah war had rented out.

After the strike a car bearing a ‘press’ marking was crushed under debris. Roofing tiles were blown off, and rubble littered the inside of the bungalow and its surroundings.

The strike “targeting journalists” was, according to Prime Minister Najib Mikati, among the “war crimes committed by the Israeli enemy”.

He also said the attack was “deliberate”.

Earlier, Information Minister Ziad Makary said Israel had “waited for the journalists’ nighttime break” to strike while they slept.

“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions,” Makary wrote on X.

Rescuers killed

Journalists from other media organisations, including Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Sky News Arabic and Al Jazeera English, were also resting nearby when the strike hit, in an area outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds.

After nearly a year of war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s attack, Israel expanded its focus to Lebanon and last month launched a massive bombing campaign targeting mainly Hezbollah strongholds across the country, sending in ground troops on September 30.

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The war in Lebanon has killed at least 1,580 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

Lebanon’s health minister said Friday that 163 rescuers and health workers have been killed in the country in a year of cross-border fire.

Israel’s military on Friday said it had struck more than 200 people targets in Lebanon over the past day, as it announced the deaths of five soldiers in fighting in south Lebanon.

It also confirmed it struck a northern border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, accusing Hezbollah of moving weapons through it.

Gaza strikes

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes hit two homes at dawn on Friday in Khan Yunis, the Palestinian territory’s main southern city.

According to agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal, 14 people – nine of them children – were killed in a strike on a family’s home, and another six were killed in a separate raid.

In north Gaza, the Israeli military on Friday said dozens of people were killed around Jabalia over the previous day.

Israel launched a major assault on north Gaza earlier this month, saying it aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.

Bassal said “more than 770 people have been killed” in northern Gaza in the 19 days since then.

Hamas’s attack which triggered the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

The Hamas group also took 251 people hostage, 97 of whom are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 42,847 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the United Nations considers reliable.

Multiple bids to stop the war have failed, though Israel’s key backer the United States has voiced hope that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week could serve as an opening for a deal.

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A senior Hamas official told AFP that the group was ready to stop fighting if Israel commits to a ceasefire, after a delegation from its Doha-based leadership discussed a possible truce with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he welcomed mediator Egypt’s readiness to reach a deal “for the release of the hostages” held by Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu directed the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency to leave for Qatar on Sunday to “advance a series of initiatives that are on the agenda”, his office said.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have long tried to mediate a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

‘Time is running out’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged Friday to work with “real urgency” for a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon, urging Israel to spare civilians, but stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.

On Thursday, he met with Qatar’s leaders in Doha on his 11th trip to the region since the start of the Gaza war.

During the trip, which comes less than two weeks before US elections, Blinken said mediators would explore new options for a Gaza truce.

Israeli and US officials as well as some analysts said Sinwar had been a key obstacle to a deal which would release the hostages still held in Gaza.

Critics of Netanyahu, too, have regularly accused him of obstructing truce and hostage release negotiations.

An Israeli group representing families of hostages called on Netanyahu and Hamas to reach a deal.

“Time is running out,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

On Thursday, hostage supporters marched outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence demanding action for their release.