The Israeli military on Friday bombed a residential compound in southern Lebanon housing more than a dozen reporters from seven Lebanese and international media outlets, killing three journalists and wounding several others.
"This is a war crime," Ziad Makary, Lebanon's minister of information, said in the wake of the attack, which was carried out in the early hours of the morning while the victims were asleep.
Two Al-Mayadeen TV said one of its camera operators, Ghassan Najar, and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida were killed in the Israeli bombing. The other journalist killed was Wissam Qassim of Al-Manar TV.
Imran Khan, a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera who was present at the compound at the time of the Israeli attack, said there was no warning issued ahead of the strike.
"These were just journalists that were sleeping in bed after long days of covering the conflict," said Khan.
Photographs and video footage from the site of the Israeli attack show the ruins of a building and a destroyed vehicle with a large "press" label on the hood.
"We are bidding farewell to one colleague after the other due to these Israeli crimes," Al Jadeed reporter Mohammad Farhat said the aftermath of the deadly strike.
The Associated Pressreported that "Ali Shoeib, Al-Manar's well-known correspondent in south Lebanon, was seen in a video filming himself with a cellphone saying that the camera operator who had been working with him for months was killed."
"Shoeib said the Israeli military knew that the area that was struck housed journalists of different media organizations," AP added. "Lebanon's Health Minister said Friday that 11 journalists have been killed and eight wounded since exchanges of fire began along the Lebanon-Israel border in early October 2023."
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a group that has been tracking Israel's attacks on journalists in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, said Friday that it "strongly condemns Israel's killing of three journalists in southern Lebanon earlier today."
"The international community must act to stop Israel's long-standing pattern of impunity in journalist killings," the group said.
The Israeli attack on journalists in southern Lebanon came days after Israel's military accused six Gaza-based Al Jazeera reporters of being fighters in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—a claim the Qatar-based outlet forcefully denied and condemned as "a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide."
"These baseless claims follow Al Jazeera's recent exposé of potential war crimes committed by Israeli forces during the ongoing war on Gaza," the Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement Wednesday. "These journalists have been steadfastly reporting from northern Gaza, with Al Jazeera being the sole international media presence documenting the unfolding humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel's siege and bombardment of civilian populations."
"Al Jazeera calls on the international community to act with the utmost urgency to protect these journalists' lives and to put an end to Israeli crimes against media professionals. The network reaffirms its commitment to delivering accurate, impartial reporting from conflict zones, despite the grave risks and baseless accusations faced by its journalists," the outlet continued. "Al Jazeera stands firm in its belief that journalism is not a crime, and we will continue to bring the truth to light, no matter what obstacles or threats we face."
